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