K is for Killing

A great topic to start the New Year on but it’s time to create some controversy.  There is a general acceptance in New Zealand that hunting is a perfectly normal activity that the entire family can enjoy.  I am well learned to hunting being one of the basic skills man developed which advanced civilisation.  To this day it is still a means of support and survival in many areas of the world.  But I can’t move beyond the fact that for most of us, we have moved on from a hunting and gathering lifestyle to agriculture and urbanisation.  Hunting is now termed as a ‘sport’ and a ‘leisure’ activity, no longer a requirement for daily survival.   This is what is evident in New Zealand.  The government contributes huge financial resources to the production and protection of introduced species such as dear, trout, pigs and pheasants.  The same government is spending millions trying to counteract the negative impact these same animals are having on the environment by replanting forests, cleaning streams and protecting what little native birds are left.  This makes as much sense to me as providing weapons to a country to fight in a war against your own.  Furthermore if the prey is getting limited, more get released in to the environment so that hunters are always satisfied.  If the hunters still don’t manage to kill anything, they can pay for someone else to round up animals up on a cliff or run it down with exhaustion, so the hunter can enjoy the moment of the kill.  Excuses such as keeping feral numbers down or helping protecting the environment are simply that, excuses.  Here’s to some change in legislation in the future………