The headline on page 6 of The Independent on Saturday 1st August read [1]: 'What is fun about
death and the killing of a beautiful creature?'. It was a quote from an interview
by Jonathan Owen with the campaigner Virginia McKenna and focussed on the
killing of a lion by a trophy hunter, but it set me thinking more widely about
my attitude to killing organisms. I maintain that all creatures are beautiful,
so, for me, the adjective is redundant.
I'll begin with two examples that only loosely fit the
definition of a creature. As someone who has had a close encounter with E. coli (below, top left), I am very thankful
for antibiotics and their power to kill the bacteria. However, studies in microbiology
reveal not only a beautifully adapted organism, but one with tremendous powers
of reproduction and the ability to fend off the defence mechanisms of the host.
Killing them when they infect areas of the body other than the gut brings a
great deal of relief but I wouldn't describe it as being fun. The same applies
to the presence of weeds like dandelions in the garden, especially the lawn.
No-one could dispute that they are beautiful plants, but we like them in the countryside
and not messing up the neat arrangement of plants that we like to culture.
Killing weeds never involves thoughts of regret at extinguishing the life of
another creature, at least in my experience.
Having spent time in Northern Scandinavia on research
visits, I know something about high densities of mosquitoes [2]: who was it who
said they enjoyed the high-pitched noise of mosquito wing beats and likened it
to singing? Adult females require blood before they can mature their eggs and
they are both persistent at finding hosts and, despite their noisy flight,
usually land unnoticed. Unfortunately, I react badly to mosquito bites and
invariably get lots of itchy lumps as a result. Creams and anti-histamine
sprays are of some assistance, but I try to kill the insects before attack, if
at all possible. Not exactly the fun of the headline in The Independent, but certainly pleasurable. Yet I have studied
larval mosquitoes in some detail, as I have the larvae of other biting flies,
and I am amazed by the evolution of their feeding structures and the metamorphosis
that results in such different body plans as those of the larvae and adults. I
retain a sense of wonder, but this is not in my mind when I kill biting flies
(and I've killed millions of their larvae). However, there are plenty left
after my efforts.
Other beautiful creatures include wasps and blowflies
(above, lower). All of us are amazed at the structure of wasp nests: the way they
are constructed; the social behaviour of the inhabitants; and the capacity for
workers to hunt and gather to bring food to bring to the nest. Wasps are
brightly coloured to give a warning that they sting and we react to that, even
though it evolved long before humans appeared on the Earth. Indeed, almost any
insects with black and yellow striped abdomens receive the same treatment as
wasps as we try to brush them away and, preferably, swat them. As I write, we
have a wasp nest nearby and the workers often enter our house through open windows.
Despite my admiration for the structure and lifestyle of wasps, I kill these
intruders with relish and would ideally like the nest removed, wherever it
might be. It's the same with blowflies and house flies and their beautifully
adapted maggots [3]. I kill those with the same degree of pleasure.
All the examples thus far are of creatures which either
cause harm or irritation to us, or to our immediate surroundings. What of the killing
of creatures for food? Our hunter-gatherer ancestors captured animals to eat
and we can still do this if collecting, fishing or shooting. However, we are now
mostly dependent on buying animals that have been killed by
someone else, although blue mussels are sold alive before we kill them by
tipping them into a pan of boiling muscadet [4]. The food industry is geared to
providing us not only with killed animals, but also gutted fish, or butchered meat,
although this processing is largely hidden from us. Fish are caught at sea by
lines or trawls, or gathered from large enclosures in fish farms, and they are allowed
to die before being gutted and packed on ice. Meat comes mainly in the form of
chickens, turkeys, sheep, cows and pigs that are farmed, with the latter three transported
first to markets and then on to abattoirs for slaughter. I've visited an
abattoir and it was not a pleasant experience, but not sufficiently unpleasant
to stop me from being an enthusiastic omnivore.
During disease outbreaks, it is common for farm animals to
be shot in situ and their carcases
burned or buried. It strikes me that killing livestock on farms is preferable
to the market-abattoir route, although many may prefer the killing to continue
being hidden from view. At least some chickens and turkeys are killed on the
farms where they are reared, but the conditions in which they live vary greatly.
The intensive rearing of battery chickens for egg production is a case in point
and I still remember vividly the smells, sounds and sights of a battery rearing
unit that I visited forty years ago. Slaughter is just part of a brutal
process, as it is with other intensively reared farm animals, and slaughter on
site, or nearby, is hardly the compensation it would be for animals that are
allowed a (relatively) free range.
Shooting livestock would be little different to hunting game,
something that I've enjoyed. As I do not wish to kill the animals myself, my
role in rough shoots is as a beater, walking up the game and watching the
dogs quartering the ground ahead of the line of guns. It is a good day out and
worth it just to watch the dogs in action, and most birds on shoots I've
attended are shot cleanly. In addition, there is the prospect of being paid for
my pleasure in the occasional gift of a bird and I'm very fond of game of all
kinds. My sole experience of hunting deer came when I accompanied a friend who
is highly experienced stalker. We could see roe deer in a clearing and I was
told to lie down and watch while he moved through the wood to get into a good
position to shoot. After minutes, there was a loud crack and the deer dropped
dead and we were quickly on to it. We immediately performed the
gralloch, which was not upsetting to me as it was no different to the dissecting
that I had done as part of my Zoology training. The deer was grazing one minute
and dead the next and I thought that was rather good, just like the killing of
pheasants that died shortly after they were put to flight.
Killing to prevent attacks, or for food, seems acceptable to
me, as long as death is rapid. Killing for fun is less acceptable, although I
recognise that some people get pleasure from slaughtering large numbers
of fish and higher vertebrates, enjoying in this way their power over Nature.
Selecting the killing of a lion, albeit in a gruesome manner,
highlights our approach to the killing of all living creatures, each a remarkable
example of the power of evolution.
[1] The Independent
1st August 2015 p6.
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