RF, William, Kate and cruelty to animals

[JumpingJiminy]

We don't often hear much about what the RF are up to with blood sports and sports that involve animal cruelty.

There's another thread on her about polo which I had no idea was such a cruel sport.

Yet William's happy to play. I know he believes his life's grift is pretending to save the environment and end poverty.

But in this age of increased awareness, more young people being vegan, or just more people more aware of cruelty, how does the Wales' involvement in cruelty to animals place them for future success as monarchs. Particularly when said younger people don't support them in the same way older people do.

Or is this all going to be underreported, and they'll do the usual shooting, and polo playing, etcetera, widening the gap between their relevance and younger people's expectations.

Wills in action! Prince of Wales shows off his polo skills in annual Windsor charity match - as cousin Peter Phillips and his new flame Harriet Sperling turn out in support | Daily Mail Online https://share.google/nsikS4mu2WWF6dEHs

I might have to! 😆

This is from a Vegan Society survey last year. I didn't realise anyone under 65 was classed as being younger!!

It suggests under 65s overall are twice as likely to be vegan, which is interesting.

Thanks for those figures. 🙂

There’s are “well informed” people who tell you their side of a story. Not the full story. No doubt George will decide what interests him. He might not want to play polo. Most equine sport horses are amazingly well looked after. Polo is very stop/start and turn on a sixpence. It’s nothing like racing. All sports, animals or human sports, have injuries to participants. Horses do enjoy their sport though. They are bred for that purpose.

Blood sports (hunting with hounds to chase and kill animals) are outlawed and have been for nearly 20 years. Hounds follow a scent and I don’t care who rides along with them. Far more animals are cruelly treated by their owners than any ponies on a polo field.

Any sport involving animals is barbaric, but stupidly rich people get a free pass by trying to make it look glamorous.

Of course it’s not barbaric! Utter tosh. Horses are partners to human beings. In sport that’s athletic, there will be injuries. Both to riders and horses. It’s not barbaric to have a competition horse.

Personally I don't think hunting with guns conflicts with Royal conservation efforts in other areas. Conservation includes maintaining a balance of nature and habitats, animal and human. Shooting deer and pheasants and boar is not in any way comparable to big game hunting, which is abhorrent.

I think a lot of the anti polo rhetoric came from PETA, who are famously batshit about any and all ownership, sporting endeavours, or companionship of animals.

Do a Google on their opinion of sheepdogs...... It's completely ridiculous.

Absolutely grim. If a working class family took their seven year old child hare coursing they would (rightly) be looked at in terms of their parenting choices… lol

Totally different scenario hare coursing like fox hunting is a cruel bloodsport that has been rightly banned in England and Wales since 2004. Taking a child to watch an animal be hunted in a terrifying chase and then be torn to pieces by dogs is very bad parenting.

Showing an older child the reality between meat on the table and how it gets there is not the same. Hunting in the sense of stalking and shooting an animal teaches how to respect the animal's environment and how to humanely as possible select and kill an animal for food.

Taking pleasure in the skill of shooting as a sport is not taking pleasure in the killing of animals. In fact the greater the skill the less the animal will suffer.

I thought we were talking about grouse?

I'm sure there are some badly managed grouse moors and unethical practices going on but I believe Scotland has tighted up its licensing and management of grouse hunting. I'd imagine the Balmoral moors are run with those best practices in mind and so is still not comparable with hare coursing.

PETA who were the main critics of letting George view the hunt would not find any kind of killing of animals acceptable.

But for meat eaters it's a part of life that I believe is better to be transparent (in age appropriate ways) for children to know where their food is coming from.

I wouldn't really compare the two, tbh!

That article is 5 years old.

But for meat eaters it's a part of life that I believe is better to be transparent (in age appropriate ways) for children to know where their food is coming from.

I agree with you. However, I wonder how much the kids are shown how other animals they might eat end up on their plates.

And no, to anyone who thinks I mean taking 7-12 year olds down the nearest abbatoir.

Hunting deer with (up to two) dogs still happens on Exmoor.

Deer are chased by horses and hounds for hours before they are killed. I saw a deer killed just feet from a public footpath this year. It was horrific. That poor animal.

Anyone saying they have no problem eating wild deer venison should know this.

That is horrible - I didn't know that still happened.

I'm more familiar with hunting blinds and stalking where the deer is peaceful and unaware of the hunter - a good shot means death is instantaneous. Do they do that kind of hunting anywhere else in the UK?

@wordler I could be wrong, but I think it only goes on in the South West where 3 hunts got out several times a week doing this now.

A relative took on polo ponies that could no longer be ridden. The ponies were still young but their backs were shot to pieces. They are ridden hard, with spurs, they ate forced to bump into each other. Harry rode a pregnant mare and she died.

I do have to defend harry ( not much though!) , drizzle the mare was not pregnant, she was however 10 years old and Harry was told not to ride her and literally minutes into the game had to be walked off and died of heart failure.

The horse has no choice in the matter. Anyone who enjoys an activity that involves causing pain to an animal is an arsehole.

Do you eat meat?

I do not.

'Shooting' covers such a huge range of contexts it is impossible to generalise.

Shooting sick.or injured animals seems humane to me. Culling for environmental reasons is necessary sometimes, and certainly no worse than factory farming.

From what I have read the breeding practicez of large, commercial shoots are bad for the environment, and during the shoots a large proportion of birds are injured rather than shot cleanly, and the carcasses dumped. I find that difficult to.justify.

A friend of a friend shoots as a hobby (working class Londoner), and gives away pheasants for free during the season because he will get half a dozen every weekend. He charges £40 for a deer. I have happily accepted pheasants, and learnt to deal with the feathers and innards - it's a useful reminder as a meat eater of where meat comes from IYSWIM

I still remember watching, as my cousin killed the chicken for our dinner (in Cyprus), and being shocked. My mum asked me where I thought our meat came from. It hadn’t occurred to me, I was young, but it just never clicked.

I was vegetarian for a number of years, but now more flexitarian I’d say.

Where I live the deer numbers have jumped with the result of damage to tress in the park and large number of young bucks roaming the roads. I remember one roaming past my house one day over 20km from the park

The powers that be can’t decide the best way to cull them, but it will involve hunters in someway.

I worked for Guards back in the day. I can assure you that there are some extremely cruel practices that went on. Ever heard of firing? It's illegal in the UK but was routinely carried out there. If/when a leg injury occurs (tendon/suspensory very common due to the high speed stops and turns), an additional injury is carried out to the leg to encourage blood to the area to aid healing. That might involve applying a topical irritant like chilli paste or inserting metal rods into the legs for a period of time. It's a barbaric practice that causes intense and prolonged pain and suffering. I could tell all kinds of stories like this.