Confusion of all sorts over the fate of the white roebuck spotted in Dumfries and Galloway. According to Sunday's Times and Telegraph, Kevin Stuart, who owns the stalking rights, is hoping to get £6,000 for the privilege of killing it; but the Daily Mail quotes Mr. Stuart as saying "I don't care how much
anybody offers to kill it, I want to preserve it and make sure it has a
long life."
More, and more insidious, confusions when the issue was debated on BBC Radio 4's Today programme (link available until 15 March).
First, Charlie Jacoby of Sporting Rifle magazine praised Mr. Stuart as "one of these tens of thousands of people who manage wildlife in the UK on behalf of the taxpayer, for free" - to which one can only say "Eh?" Us taxpayers may benefit indirectly from Mr. Stuart's stewardship, but we didn't ask him to do it, he holds no official position, he doesn't consult us on what he does, so "on behalf of" seems a stretch; and one thing the papers seem agreed on is that he runs the estate as a commercial proposition, so I'm not so sure about "for free". (Tangentially: I get really pissed off with the insistence these days on the primacy of the taxpayer - constant references to, for example, taxpayers now owning banks. It is the government that does the owning, and whatever it does it does on behalf not of taxpayers but citizens, who are not quite the same group.)
Then came Will Travers of the Born Free Foundation, finding it "extraordinary" that there's talk of shooting the beast when Buddhism, Hinduism and Zoroastrianism all revere white animals. How does that work? Mr. Travers also talked about the deer's value as a "talisman", its value as a national symbol at a time of depression, its capacity to help tell "important stories" to young people - possibly through mime, I suppose. Following his logic: 1) it's bizarre that cardiac surgeons labour to keep hearts in working order
when the ancient Aztecs used to believe in ripping the
still-beating heart from the chest (and the surgeons should stop and reconsider their secular western attitudes); 2) it's OK to shoot white deer in times of prosperity, and ordinary-looking deer at all times.
Nature is more rational. Left to fend for himself in a proper, extensive eco-system, this deer wouldn't last a week. If we just reintroduced wolves to Scotland they'd deal with the matter sharpish, with no fuss or ethical ambiguities.