Guga Hunt
It looks like the Great and the Good are about to condemn the annual Guga Hunt as being inhumane, and a practice which must be stopped.
We all know that the well-meaning, but out-of-touch organisations that seek to designate every square inch of the islands as a protected area, SSSI, RAMSAR, Marine Conservation Zone or whatever the flavour of the month is.
The one creature that gets no protection is the human residents, who find traditional practices stopped; freedom of movement constrained; and the wisdom of generations cast aside, by 'cleverer' visitors with a degree or three and a large consultancy budget.
Not everything has to survive, of course, but neither has everything to be cast aside in favour of today's flavour of the month, and today's perceived wisdom.
Presumably, to ensure a 'humane' dispatching - by whose criteria, and by whose infallible measure? - the conservation (sic) bodies will demand that the men of Ness will have to take a fully functioning slaughtering machine, along with a suitably qualified inspector from the Comhairle to check their permits; fridges, freezers and vacuum packing equipment; EU approved labelling, including a best before date*.
I have said it before, and I will say it again, these bodies won't be satisfied until they have an empty island to play with so that the Corncrakes, Geese, Guga and assorted other visitors can swim, walk and fly wild and justify the existence of the Quangos.
They were wrong about the Uist Hedgehogs - badly wrong - but they got a few years funding out of that.
Now is the time to stop this madness.
* "Guga doesn't go off", as a wag said, "It's already off".
We all know that the well-meaning, but out-of-touch organisations that seek to designate every square inch of the islands as a protected area, SSSI, RAMSAR, Marine Conservation Zone or whatever the flavour of the month is.
The one creature that gets no protection is the human residents, who find traditional practices stopped; freedom of movement constrained; and the wisdom of generations cast aside, by 'cleverer' visitors with a degree or three and a large consultancy budget.
Not everything has to survive, of course, but neither has everything to be cast aside in favour of today's flavour of the month, and today's perceived wisdom.
Presumably, to ensure a 'humane' dispatching - by whose criteria, and by whose infallible measure? - the conservation (sic) bodies will demand that the men of Ness will have to take a fully functioning slaughtering machine, along with a suitably qualified inspector from the Comhairle to check their permits; fridges, freezers and vacuum packing equipment; EU approved labelling, including a best before date*.
I have said it before, and I will say it again, these bodies won't be satisfied until they have an empty island to play with so that the Corncrakes, Geese, Guga and assorted other visitors can swim, walk and fly wild and justify the existence of the Quangos.
They were wrong about the Uist Hedgehogs - badly wrong - but they got a few years funding out of that.
Now is the time to stop this madness.
* "Guga doesn't go off", as a wag said, "It's already off".
8 comments:
Doesn't this happen every year? A Guga must be the most free range poultry going. The SSPCA should concern themselves with the continuing appalling treatment of battery and broiler hens.
The Aberdeen lady whose house has been invaded by bats has it right when she says "the bats have more rights than me" She is NOT allowed to remove them and SHE has had to move out and must await the flying rats departure before she can block up the points of entry. (POE)
The Guga hunt to Sulasgeir enjoys Parliamentary protection so the Law of the Land would have to be changed before it could be banned.
If you lot up North keep the lesser spotted conservationist busy until their migrating season comes around and they clear off south for the winter, the rest of us can get on with quietly eating cormorant, puffin and guillemot as our ancestors did.
I blame Charlie Barley and the insatiable demand that he has created in far off lands for organic Guga marags.
I was down the pier at Stockinish last night and there was the most terrific brawl among the chaps from SNH, RSPB, DEFRA, SERAD, RSPCA, HIE, CNE (and one or two other less well fed fellows that I didn't recognise) all demanding that Angus Campbell take them out to 'that place' forthwith.
A pity he didn't put in a bid for the old Ark Royal as all of them might just about have got on board without losing their dignity.
If the good men of Ness switch to the halal method of slaughter they will be left alone.
Should the perceived wisdom of the SSPCA prevail then the rioting currently being experienced in inner city England will be like a summer fete at Bethesda.
Civil disobedience on an unparalleled scale would arise, buth shuainabost and Cross Stores would be safe but the streets of Stornoway are a different kettle of fish.
The sight of Murdo Macleans in flames with cailleachs emerging from the ruins carrying armfuls of looted Sunday hats and size twenty floral dresses are should be enough to make anybody back down.
The message is simple
Don't mess with the Niseachs
Oscar Wilde once said about fox hunting, that it was "the unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable"
Some things never alter. They just morph themselves into Leodhasach life.
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