The Glorious Twelfth...

12th August marks the start of the shooting season and a great day in the Field Sports calendar which every keen sportsman looks forward to. One of the most natural activities for man is to hunt and forage for his food. Ever since Adam and Eve were cast from Eden, man has had to hunt and forage for his food. Whilst this is the consequence of the Fall and there will be no need of hunting in Heaven, it need not be an activity without its pleasures here below. The same applies to many things that are the consequence of the Fall. Indeed God expects us to make a virtue of necessity and to turn the arduous into something full of meaning and reward. Men must climb mountains and it is arduous but it is also fulfilling and fun. So with the pleasures of the Chase. Hunting, shooting and fishing have always been the birthright of every free-born man.

This view is not shared by many modern men (and especially, for some reason, many modern women). This is a sign of the absurd artificiality of our modern lives when we tend to think that our meat and drink come from refrigerated cabinets in Hypermarkets and not from real animals.

Why men and women who are content to chop up meat in their kitchens should cavil at the idea of hunting that same meat, is a mystery. It is something so devoid of logic and common sense as to be almost comic.

Yet these same people have managed to persuade our current Labour government to abolish hunting with hounds, an ancient and perfectly natural activity for man.

It is curious when these same animal-rights people seem to have less objection to men shooting each other senselessly than to hunting animals. Reality reminder: Adolf Hitler was a vegetarian!

It is also a simple fact that food which has to be chased is healthier for you than food which comes from animals bred in captivity, under arc lamps and in narrow cages, or lounging lazily in fields awaiting the slaughter yard. Deer have zero cholesterol whereas fat, lazy cows are brimming with the stuff. Birds of the air likewise have but little, whereas broiler chickens are stuffed full of it and, moreover, farmed cattle and chickens tend to have loads of unhealthy chemicals crammed into them to give them colour and make them keep longer. Farmed fish (e.g. salmon) are also full of unhealthy fat.

Want to be healthy? Then eat game i.e. food that has been chased!