tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8009643355982117276.post2391595682114463454..comments2023-11-18T20:46:14.848+00:00Comments on James Marchington: Who shot the Exmoor Emperor?James Marchingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08109578008088776428noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8009643355982117276.post-41654091275188892742010-10-28T22:26:37.552+01:002010-10-28T22:26:37.552+01:00Hi Vicky, you should only need to be signed in - I...Hi Vicky, you should only need to be signed in - I deliberately didn't switch on the wiggly letter thing cos it drives me nuts! The number of 'online casino' spam messages was getting ridiculous though. I'll give it a while then allow anonymous comments again and see if it's subsided.<br />JamesJames Marchingtonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08109578008088776428noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8009643355982117276.post-903892682614501542010-10-28T13:23:41.285+01:002010-10-28T13:23:41.285+01:00If this urns out to have all been a misunderstandi...If this urns out to have all been a misunderstanding (or deliberate fabrication) I can't see headline apologies from the BBC and newspapers. The damage has been done :-(<br /><br />(Nb, this google account thing is driving me up the wall James- it doesn't accept when I write in the wiggly letters)vickyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10121255969249035539noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8009643355982117276.post-35162916673236924432010-10-27T21:34:27.320+01:002010-10-27T21:34:27.320+01:00Was the thing shot ? I have spent hours on the pho...Was the thing shot ? I have spent hours on the phone with my contacts down there and no news at all.Meconopsishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02517633816539650621noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8009643355982117276.post-86354999130876051902010-10-27T19:56:36.979+01:002010-10-27T19:56:36.979+01:00Sometimes I get a tad carried away.....:-)Sometimes I get a tad carried away.....:-)Bill O' Riteshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04580982270315364022noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8009643355982117276.post-79799604420363437822010-10-27T16:36:15.354+01:002010-10-27T16:36:15.354+01:00Further reading suggests he was found near a road ...Further reading suggests he was found near a road and the stalkers seen around him by the photographer had not shot him. Poachers? Road accident? This has been spun into awful publicity without much investigation of the facts....poor journalism by some.<br /><br />Lets get the good news stories out there; grey partridge, songbirds, shoots raising money for charity.....vickyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10121255969249035539noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8009643355982117276.post-61377913735909253612010-10-27T16:05:57.217+01:002010-10-27T16:05:57.217+01:00I am finding it really difficult to form an opinio...I am finding it really difficult to form an opinion on this story as FACTS seem so hard to come by. Who-ever manages the herd this stag was with must have had a reason to shoot him or allow him to be shot; maybe an injury, age, ill health, maybe an obscene amount of money. But we haven't heard from him. Only the 'wildlife experts' have seen any of the goings on. If a stag in his prime was shot purely for the trophy value then I would feel the harm to hunting and shooting of shooting a 'famous' beast outweighed any financial gain. But I also find hysteria over his shooting just because he is 'famous' is hypocritical. It's either ok to harvest wild meat or it's not (that's where I find my respect for really militant vegans; at least there is no hypocrasy when they complain about hunting or farming!).vickyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10121255969249035539noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8009643355982117276.post-12897048236664839872010-10-26T22:39:58.984+01:002010-10-26T22:39:58.984+01:00Hi Alan,
Perhaps 'getting round it' is ope...Hi Alan,<br />Perhaps 'getting round it' is open to misinterpretation. I mean deal with the problem where the word 'sport' (which originally meant hunting, shooting and fishing, not football and cricket - correctly they're 'games') implies to the lay person an unethical approach. It's a semantic problem which is seized upon by anti-shooting campaigners, who are happy to encourage the stereotype of tweeded chinless wonders blasting pheasants from the sky.<br />As for where the meat goes, ask any game dealer. There's a huge market for game meat on the continent, but partly thanks to campaigns such as Game to Eat and Game's On, the market for good local wild meat is growing strongly in the UK.<br />I'd avoid the supermarkets if I were you - visit your local butcher, fishmonger and game dealer and buy proper food from ethical, sustainable local sources.James Marchingtonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08109578008088776428noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8009643355982117276.post-44007951875664903142010-10-26T22:22:01.496+01:002010-10-26T22:22:01.496+01:00Surely "getting round it" isn't the ...Surely "getting round it" isn't the right approach? Perhaps accept that the majority of people as you say have an issue with killing for the sake of sport/fun/pleasure and get away from these big money/big profits operations that satisfy only a small number of individuals.<br />Out of interest when these big days or big numbers are shot where does the meat go? I struggle to find grouse or pheasant in my local supermarket or butchers except at Christmas or in teh odd bit of pate.Alan Tilmouthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10201030182018368937noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8009643355982117276.post-35660083067642131432010-10-26T21:25:56.196+01:002010-10-26T21:25:56.196+01:00Interesting stuff there, anon - thanks for the res...Interesting stuff there, anon - thanks for the research. Having seen behind the scenes of these sort of stories ('killer bees', for instance), I know that there's usually someone who smells a quick buck, someone with an axe to grind, or someone out to make a reputation as a journalist. In this case we seem to have all three, potentially bankrolled by a wealthy individual with a grudge against the status quo in deer management.<br /><br />I know shooters are worried about the 'negative' publicity for shooting, but there's another side to it that interests me. Reading through umpteen comments from 'members of the public' on news websites, what comes through is a powerful desire for a strong code of ethics to be applied to hunting; killing 'for fun' is abhorrent, killing for food and/or properly conceived wildlife management, and doing it humanely and ethically, is generally accepted although many wouldn't want to do it themselves.<br /><br />Which is not a million miles from my own views.<br /><br />This word 'sport' is our downfall - the public equate it with treating a wild animal like a football. I wish I knew how we could get round that one.James Marchingtonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08109578008088776428noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8009643355982117276.post-27847686539434538292010-10-26T18:22:46.304+01:002010-10-26T18:22:46.304+01:00James - I think you may be wrong about how this ca...James - I think you may be wrong about how this came to the news - theres something else, deeper going on, <br /><br />Look at this, Telegraph, just over a year ago:<br /><br />http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/6267525/Largest-wild-animal-in-Britain-is-300lb-9ft-stag-the-Exmoor-Emperor.html<br /><br />same 'deer expert' same photographer, saying the same things about seasons and having to keep location secret - plus a deer that has apparently been in his prime and not going back both last year AND this year - too many coincidences<br /><br />I think someone has been manipulating the media to press this issue, or maybe to press their career as a photographer... so, wheres the carcass, wheres the photo's...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8009643355982117276.post-46186418269442921732010-10-26T16:53:32.975+01:002010-10-26T16:53:32.975+01:00Have been looking around a little bit - and found ...Have been looking around a little bit - and found this on an old BDS deer bytes - an article from the telegraph from over a year ago...<br /><br />[I]7 THE EXMOOR EMPEROR - Largest wild animal in Britain is 300lb, 9ft stag<br />Telegraph.co.uk [B]07.10.09[/B]<br />The annual mating season for deer is on and the wild stag has been spotted near the Devon-Somerset border. Weighing in at more than 300 lbs - and standing nearly nine feet from hoof to antler-tip - the stag has been identified by a local authority on wild deer as a "truly magnificent" example of the species.<br /> <br />"Red deer stags are the biggest indigenous land animal left in these islands, so it's possible that this is the largest wild animal in the country today," commented Dulverton's [B]Peter Donnelly, who has many years' experience in deer management.[/B] "The deer on Exmoor are larger than the ones in Scotland because of their diet and this is a very fine beast. He's so big and powerful," said Mr Donnelly. "He should be encouraged to breed - under no circumstances should anyone try to hunt or shoot him," added Mr Donnelly. "[B]He's not 'going back' as we call it; he's not getting past it and he's a truly wild animal, not a 'park' stag. "This stag is absolutely in his prime and should be left alone and in peace to have nookie with as many hinds as he can."[/B]<br /> <br />Not that the Emperor will be getting much peace during the next few weeks of the annual rut, when stags vie with one another for the attentions of breeding hinds.<br />But the real danger comes from trophy hunters, who may wish to bag Britain's biggest beast. In recent weeks two large Exmoor stags have been shot on land owned by fashion and restaurant mogul Richard Caring, who is offering a cash reward of £15,000 for information that may lead to an arrest.<br /> <br />Photographer Richard Austin is keeping the Emperor's location secret. "I've been lucky in getting close to a herd on the fringes of Exmoor where this huge stag has gathered up about 25 hinds. I counted four other stags in the same field and I thought - this is it, this is going to be the best chance I've had in 25 years of photographing stags locking antlers...'<br /> <br />"But the big stag paraded around and none of the other stags seemed brave enough to take him on."<br /> [/I]<br /><br /><br />So, it seems to me that someone has had a particular bugbear in their hat over this stag for over a year - apparently he was in his prime last year, and definitely not going back... impressively he's still in his prime and not going back this year either....<br /><br />I'm starting to smell bullshite...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8009643355982117276.post-79667117718872209382010-10-26T14:15:16.133+01:002010-10-26T14:15:16.133+01:00Thanks for your take on the genesis & producti...Thanks for your take on the genesis & production of this story, James. It's very interesting to get an idea of how these things actually do get assembled & then shoveled into the hysterical world of the red-tops. <br /><br />HHHubert Huberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11648804733877209296noreply@blogger.com