Thursday 28 October 2010

Emperor's Clothes


Telling truth from fiction is impossible once the media get hold of a story, especially one that they think resonates with the public sentiment. Has the Emperor of Exmoor been shot or has he not? Was it in fact another stag, or was there even any shooting at all? There must be numerous larger stags on Exmoor. And when the media start talking to farmers there are two lots of agendas and two groups not unused to colouring any incident. Who provided the information anyway and how many of those who produce copy for the national press have any direct knowledge of the event or even know anything about Exmoor?
One thing is clear: The value in the story is in the questions it raises that seem to be almost independent of the facts of this particular ‘event’. Here are a few:

1 How important are genuinely wild animals to us? Have you noticed how after the initial sentiment and indignation has been voiced during this sort of story, certain people emerge to put across the view that these animals have to be managed anyway as if there is no individual value in one beast even one as magnificent as the one in question. Do these commenters actually believe that all of the value inherent in these animals is in relation to man’s capacity to manage them – not very different to the farmer’s managing his livestock just for the bottom line?

2 Are countryside managers (mainly conservationists) so tied up by the biodiversity agenda that they take their eye off the ball in failing to protect or put great store by our native wild life – anything from red deer to birch and rowan trees? Is it just those elements in nature that have been pronounced as under threat that matter to them? In which case why are they not out in the rain forests rather than tinkering with artificial landscapes from offices at home? And have they no sense of the bigger picture that surely inspires people most; the whole package of landscape and natural beauty and people’s experience of it if it’s to continue to be given priority. Why should anyone care about 75% of the world’s grouse moor being in this country if it’s as dull as a Tesco car park most of the year?

3 Close to home, what do we make of a wildlife trust that installs a barbed wire fence with 4 strands, the bottom one just about on the eye level of many mammals? Does that show any value put on wildlife? It’s been done just to further a farming agenda, indicating they care more for farm animals than wildlife. Even more extraordinary, what should one make of the reaction to the outcry about this fence? A small area of the fence was quietly altered later on near to a popular path –the bottom strand being replaced by plain wire. The longest stretch is still the same, some 90% of it, but presumably that does not matter even though wild animals are just as likely, if not more, to move across the land there. So there we have it – they care not for wildlife but worry a lot that people might see and criticise what they get up to. Deer incidentally when mature and confident and when the ground is favourable jump fences easily. Young deer calves are another matter and can die when trapped in wire. Has anyone at SWT thought about that? Has anyone there ever noticed that deer tracks can be seen running the length of the fence within the woodland indicating a reluctance to jump? Is it any wonder that we constantly ask them to set up an ongoing supervision of this site? They seem to see themselves like the management of any big business, office dwellers who deal with problems remotely if at all. Isn’t it time to expose the institutional phoniness of their claim to care about wildlife. All that paperwork and publicity and propaganda mean nothing without presence and a demonstration of affection. How is it that they didn’t have any photos of the deer? Why does the Chief Exec not come here? It brings to mind the Emperor’s Clothes.

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