Animal welfare; Hunting -- Moral and ethical aspects; Hunting -- Religious aspects
Of the means employed to accomplish the hunters’ ends let us say a few
words. Explosive bullets we know have been universally condemned in
human warfare on account of their barbarity, but against defenceless
animals they are still held to be legitimate by so-called sportsmen.
Thus, we read: “The impact causes the bullet to expand. Often it
breaks into pieces or else takes a mushroom shape, the head in its
tremendous velocity dragging and catching with its edges the flesh and
viscera; and it often happens in the case of delicate animals that
upon leaving the body it makes a hole as big as the crown of a hat.”
That a sportsman writing for other sportsmen should feel no shame in
making such a statement shows only how we take our morality from our
surroundings, and how demoralising in this case the surroundings must
be. After this, we cannot expect to find much chivalry displayed in
this “the greatest and noblest” of sports, and we cannot be surprised
to find the author telling us with pleasure how in pure wantonness
he hid behind a tree within 10 yards of a female elephant and lodged
a bullet in her heart. This, however, is outdone by an incident in
another volume we remember, where we were told that the finest stag was
shot by a certain Grand Duke, “while it was asleep, at 20 yards.” In
fact, most big-game hunters seem--perhaps not unnaturally--to suffer
from a similar want of chivalry. We find Mr. Seton-Karr, an authority
on the subject, relating how one of his party imitated the young fawn’s
cry of distress, when, as he says: “The immediate result was to entice
within range numbers of Virginian deer or blacktail, most of them
does, and eight fell victims to this somewhat unsportsmanlike device.”
Whether such treachery is to be considered “unsportsmanlike” must
depend on what meaning we attach to the word, but if it means “unlike a
sportsman,” we fear the word is misused here.
Of the impartiality of the big-game hunter in his slaughter we have
many instances. Any creature that can be shot is fitting game for
him, and he delights in shooting it. One well-known writer gives the
following list of creatures killed by him during six weeks:
“Five elephants, 2 lions (male), 8 leopards, 2 wart hogs, 11
great spotted hyænas, 7 striped hyænas, 4 oryx beisa antelope,
10 awal antelope, 2 common gazelle, 2 bottlenose antelope,
2 gerenuk antelope, 1 lesser koodoo, 18 dig-dig antelope, 4
bustard, 2 small bustard, 2 sand grouse, 3 genet, 14 guinea
fowl, 22 partridge, 4 hares, 30 various.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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