Skewed Condemnation

Britain's blood sport so beloved of royalty and the British aristocracy; coursing the hounds to harry and pursue foxes and hares, deer and pheasants had a celebrated tradition. Although originally farmers began the hunt to eradicate animals considered pests to agriculture, it was taken up by the aristocracy and became a signal event of great social importance. A public outcry against the blood sport of fox hunting led to a ban in the mid-1990s.

But fox hunting continues, with fox-hunting clubs established in the U.S., France, Ireland, Russia and other countries. It is considered to be an honourable sport. In fact, in most countries of the world hunting season, for deer, for bear, for moose and coyote is much anticipated, regulated and exuberantly undertaken by modern-day hunters. Boars were located in countries which had no indigenous boar populations, to establish boar-hunting.

The hunt of game animals was considered an exciting sport even where animals were considered to be endangered, like the snow leopard in the Himalayas, or mountain sheep and goats of various types, some of them hunted close to extinction. Where is the world-wide condemnation of these activities? People living in Europe and in North America, for example, have no need to hunt for table food.

Countries like France which proudly boast the celebrity of stars like Bridgette Bardot who launched a personal campaign against the white-coat seal hunt in Canada's North, seeing success in having baby seals no longer hunted, never found it necessary to apologize for their gourmet-torture of geese in producing foie gras. And to the present day the Ortolan Bunting, a rare and tiny songbird the size of a thumb, remains hunted despite official protective status.

The French government simply looks the other way, while connoisseurs hunt and trap the tiny endangered bird which is prepared in wine, roasted and eaten whole. Yet the European Union, whose member-countries routinely hunt game animals, took it upon themselves to name, shame and blame, and mount a ban on seal products, representing the livelihood of Canada's northern hunters and Inuit.

Sad hypocrisy.