Giving It Up

My daughter Abi turned thirteen recently and asshooting. We used to live in a farmhouse right in
head of the family she thinks it's about time herthe middle of one of these estates. Pheasants
parents became vegetarians. She has been awere as common as pigeons and sparrows are in
convert, with occasional lapses, for around twotown. It was not at all unusual to see two or
years. I'm certainly not against the idea. We hardlythree elderly gents stroll past our house, stepping
eat meat anyway; just the odd bacon sandwichstiff-legged over barbed wire fences (ouch), with
and an extremely rare steak (rare in thetheir broken shotguns cradled over one arm and
numerical rather than the French culinary sense),their labradors at heel.Now, you might think I'm
but it would be good to lose that feeling of guiltout of sympathy with the hunting fraternity, and
experienced when a cow looks at you over theyou'd be right, up to a point, although it's true I did
fence with those mournful eyes.Actually the cowa lot of fishing in my early teens, and I once
is not at all sad - it's probably wondering if youowned a beautiful .22 BSA air rifle with an oiled
are going to pass it some of that long greenstock and a rifled barrel. I gave up fishing when I
grass on the other side of the fence, but the guiltdiscovered girls, and I exchanged the rifle for my
is real enough.Of course, not everybody feels thatfirst guitar and never looked back.As a young
way. In another life I used to be a musician and Iteenager, part of my reading was about the
remember driving to a gig with a black Americansafari hunters of Africa and India, last of a dying
blues singer called Johnnie Mars. I pointed outbreed. One of the most interesting of these was
some ducks which were flying low over the bandJim Corbett. He became well known as a writer
bus in formation. Johnnie looked up and said yep,and his best book was probably 'The Man-Eaters
he thought they were mighty fine, and after aof Kumaon'. He had respect and even love for
moment, 'Especially with roast potatoes'.This wasthe man-eaters that he had to shoot. He was not
said without a trace of irony. He told me later,just a hunter; he was also a naturalist and an
with the same straight face, that he was wellearly conservationalist, who warned against 'the
known in East Poland and Latvia, which remindedindiscriminate hunting of the tiger, which if not
me irresistibly of Dorothy Parker's line about beingcontrolled would eventually deprive India of the
famous in two continents - 'Greenland andfinest of her fauna'.About this time I discovered
Iceland'.Anyway, as I said, I'd like to become atwo great American writers; Hemingway via 'The
vegetarian, but I think you have to pick the rightGreen Hills of Africa', written in 1933, and William
time. It's like giving up smoking, something I finallyFaulkner through 'The Bear'. Written in 1942 as a
managed to do ten years ago after manylong short story, 'The Bear' is Faulkner at his
attempts. One day, all the conditions were rightprophetic best. It's about a group of men and
and I stopped, just like that.That's how I imagineboys who go on a hunting trip every year', and
it would be when giving up meat, although as fareach time they have to drive further to find the
as I know, meat is not addictive. There'll be nowilderness as the Mississippi Delta shrinks. At the
retrievals of half used packs of bacon from thetime the story was written, conservation was not
bin, or furtive trips to the corner shop, ('Just goingat all fashionable, nor was it twenty years later
to take the dog around the block, dear. Won't bewhen I read it, but it made me realize that there
long').These ruminations (isn't that what cows do?could be a link between hunting and conservation.I
- Ed) were brought on by the fact that we'vehave no desire to hunt or shoot any animal, but
recently moved house. We're now twelve milesI'm hardly in a position to criticize anyone else
further north and within sight of the Moray Firth.while I still eat meat. The arguments in favour of
(In Scotland an estuary is called a firth, so forhunting are not easy to refute. For instance, it's
example we have the Firth of Forth - see?).claimed that without foxhunting, farmers would
Anyway, in those few miles, we've moved out ofquickly eradicate the fox and that in Scotland the
the Highlands and onto the coastal plain, whichRed deer population would soar without adequate
drops gently down to the sea, about six milescontrol.Maybe, but I can't help thinking Oscar Wilde
away, giving us a clear view of the few solitarygot it right when he wrote about 'The
cottages and farmhouses in the area, plus theunspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable'. Besides,
remains of Duffus castle and the Lossiemouthas a solution to the deer population problem, I'm
lighthouse.All this is very different from thefor the re-introduction of the wolf, absent from
Highlands, with its hills and valleys, rough ravinesthe Scottish Highlands since before Bonnie Prince
and forests. Almost a different country, almost aCharlie went home to Italy. This is a serious and
different people. Before the Jacobite uprising inconsidered proposition, now championed by the
the 18th century and the subsequent destructionGreen Party, and it feels right to me. It works in
of the clan system, the 'wild, wykked hieland men'Montana - why not here in the Highlands? In the
used to swoop down onto the coastal plain, stealmeantime, at least I've moved out of earshot of
all the cattle they could cope with, burn a fewthe shotguns on the estate.James Donaldson
cottages and disappear back into the hills.Well, theCollinsJames Donaldson Collins is an artist and
clans are no longer a force, and instead there arewriter. He lives in the Highlands of Scotland with
large shooting estates, sometimes owned by oldhis wife, daughter and three dogs. His interests
established families and sometimes by wealthyare conservation, history, science fiction, chess
newcomers. Clients pay the equivalent of theand snooker. He also claims to play guitar like a
price of a good second hand car for a few daysringing a bell.