Auctioning the death of a deer

[RockinSockBunnies]

Just come across this on The Times website.

I'm so disturbed by the very notion that hunters are excited and competing for the prospect to slaughter a rare deer. The comments in the piece, denoting the glee that there's an opportunity to stalk and butcher a wild animal that looks 'different' to the others just beggars belief.

I completely fail to understand the attraction to deer stalking, but in these particular circumstances, I'm staggered . Why do people think this kind of thing is acceptable?

ah, but other deer have at least got a sporting chance. Although not that sporting, given that human beings have guns.

Always think hunters should be forced to confront their prey on equal terms - no guns, no weapons. Maybe a spear if we are going to let them have at least iron age weaponry. Let's see how brave you are then, Mr Moose/ Deer/ whatever hunter...

(I am talking about rich Westerners, btw, not native peoples for whom hunting is a way of life.)

our guy is at quite a disadvantage, the poor sod. he's going to stand out a mile.

So it is ok to shoot deer as long as the ones who run fastest get away and only the slower/ones that made the wrong decision get shot? I am sorry, I know what you are saying but I just do not get the whole thing.

Shooting deer like this is, IMHO, wrong. If you eat the meat it is less bad I suppose. However, that does not change the basic argument, if buying rights for shooting this deer is wrong then so is buying rights to shoot all deer.

If a gamekeeper decides it needs the only juvenille buck culled in a season because it shows signs of mild deformation of the hocks then it would be exactly the same as this. The buck would be different, there would only be one and one person, prepared to pay the price, would have the right to kill it. However I doubt there would be the same uproar about that.

Maybe it will snow that day and the hunter will have any number of brown deer to aim at but won't be able to find his precious white one?

Personally I could never pull the trigger or have any motivation to stalk deer. But I accept, albeit unhappily, that management of deer is necessary for the maintenance of rural life. However, what I think fills me with revulsion is the fact that people are bidding extravagently for the right to destroy this animal in question and that their instant reaction to seeing a wild creature like this is to think how great it would be to kill it.

I also find it distasteful that culling animals, whether deer, pheasants or pigeon, is considered to be 'sporting' in certain, primarily City-boy, circles. People pay for the opportunity to go out killing creatures and drinking all evening with their friends. They don't go with an understanding of creating a natural balance in a certain ecosystem or of respecting the countryside, but simply to kill as many living creatures as possible for a 'fun' day out

lol

x post, obv.

How about some kind of bear trap with a trigger Pearl could step on when the hunter was suitably lined up? It would have some kind of poetic justice then too?

I like your thinking, KingCanute!

Rocks is right, the fact that people are bidding huge amounts of money for the right to kill this specific deer (or indeed any deer) is quite repugnant. Disgusting little creeps.

Mind you, I'm not volunteering to be a hunt sab in these circs, when the hunters have got guns...

The family that kept Fyvie was cursed for accidentally refusing hospitality to a stranger to never pass from a father to his eldest son, no firstborn son would ever survive to inherit it.

And none has.

Refusing hospitality to a stranger, killing a white deer or grey seal or seal pup, and betraying someone who seeks sanctuary in your home are some of the things that bring buidealaich or curse on the perpetrator in Scottish lore.

Meaning the castle at Fyvie, that is. It never passed from father to eldest son. It is now a National Trust property.