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A Schwack of Scottish Photos

Sitting in Heathrow, awaiting our flight to Venice. I uploaded a bunch of photos from Scotland, and organized them into three vague groups: Edinburgh proper, the wedding and the castle that housed it, and the falconry at the castle, which made for nice bird photos but bummed me out. Why do Britons have such a wildlife-taming fetish? Between the fox hunting and the falconry, they’re bastards to the remaining multi-celled organisms on their little island.

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Darren Barefoot is an author, speaker and digital strategist. He’s the co-founder of Capulet Communications, and co-author of “Friends With Benefits: A Social Media Marketing Handbook”.

14 comments

  1. We’re not bastards you big seal clubbers!

    I’m not entirely sure why anyone would want to tame a wild bird now other than for educational purposes and fox huniting is kind of illegal in an odd sense of its still sort of allowed on private land so long as once the two dogs (only two) have caught the fox they don’t rip it up, its meant to be shot, though how you implement that law with pack dogs I’m not entirely sure.

  2. Darren: You’ve gone and uploaded as many photos of falcons as you have of people looking their beautiful best.

    You’re friends will be fuming!

  3. I’m not keen on taking grief from a Nation of seal clubbers with fur trapping so prominent in their past. I don’t claimperfection on this side of the pond, but people in glass houses….

  4. I’m not keen on taking grief from a Nation of seal clubbers with fur trapping so prominent in their past. I don’t claim perfection on this side of the pond, but people in glass houses….

  5. there must be some kind of “moral” difference between fox hunting (do people eat the fox at the end? i would guess that they don’t) and the traditional types of hunting in Canada (where the animal is eaten and/or the fur is actually used to keep warm).

    basically, one is for fun and the other is for staying alive.

    as for clubbing seals, the big market for the results are Europe. so, we’re doing something un-nice, but it’s really just proxy hunting for Europeans.

    that said, i doubt it makes a difference to the animals involved.

  7. You have to be kidding me, thinking that Canada has any superiority over Britain when it comes to treatment of animals. Fox hunting is BANNED in the UK, and even if it wasn’t, the numbers killed are thousands below Canada’s seal cull tally.

    Falconry is dubious, I grant you, but again, the numbers are tiny and at least the birds are well kept. Any Vancouverites taken a peek at the sad, ill-looking birds in shoebox-size cages in the average pet shop (e.g the Pet Ark on Broadway) here recently? No, I thought not.

  10. First off, I’m not a fan of seal hunting. That said, I prefer the rapid killing of a animal to its permanent incarceration or lengthy pursuit followed by death by a pack of dogs. Plus, there’s no environmental case against the current seal hunt.

    Second, I’m sorry if I implied that Canada was beyond reproach on environmental matters. Clearly we’re not. However, it does seem to me that Great Britain has taken the whole dominion over the fish of the sea et al a little too much to heart.

    That said, if any Britons would like to argue that their country’s wildlife policy is more enlightened than Canada’s, I’ll take you on.

    Kate: Yes, the fox hunt was banned in the UK. All of 15 months ago, and apparently the law has had little impact.

  11. Hey there was a news documentary piece on BBC News a couple of weeks back about a big chunk of Canadian forest being dug up because of the oil in the sand.

    I like the fac teh government passed t hat preservation order type thing on a massive chunk of forest a couple of months back though.

    All in all, I’d say your countries on a fairly even kiel(sp) with Britain, in regards to the environment….

  12. I’m just not sure that this is an issue for Nationalism. In recent posts you’ve managed to patronise Italians for their service and Britons for their falconry – anyone else you fancy a dig at ? As the comments from others demonstrate, I’m sure that there is no moral high ground for any of us to occupy here despite your attempts to claim it and I’m equally sure that crass generalisations don’t help any cause.

  13. Kevin: What ’cause’ should I be helping? As I’ve said many times before, this is DarrenBarefoot.com. As you might expect, it’s going to feature my opinions. Like most people’s opinions, they’re not egalitarian across the board. For example, I like some nations better than others. I also like some pants better than others.

    If you don’t like my opinions, I heartily encourage you to say so. If you don’t like that I have opinions, I’d suggest you try some of the sites on my sidebar. Mind you, they’re likely to be pretty opinionated too.

  14. Darren: ‘It is natural to develop predjudice; it is noble to rise above it’. But I guess if you won’t; then you just won’t.

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