A Few Words

I have written before how the great forests of Britain were cut or burnt down not for agriculture but to get at the animals living in them to hunt. The main target were wolves and then as "Great Britain" expanded so it needed sea power to enforce its empire building. This is the main reason the forests of Kent vanished.

People say that I am exaggerating and that whole forests cut down to built a couple of ships is ridiculous and I am spreading silly stories.  Look at the ship below -do you recognise it?

The ship is The Victory, the ship associated with Admiral Horatio Nelson. It was one of many ships and to build the Victory took 1000 first class oak trees. Think about that. Three ships equals 3000 oak trees. That would involve, obviously, a lot of money changing hands and that was far more important than the environmental devastation caused by thousands of oak trees -"The Great British oak. The symbol of England!"

Of course if you ran out of oaks in Kent and other parts of southern England then you put out contracts to remove oaks from elsewhere. The great oak forests of England did not disappear due to anything other than humans.

This was devastating to wildlife from boar,k to foxes, badgers, wild cats, squirrels and many others -any found during tree felling would of course give a little 'sport' to pass the time. Did the great British public say anything about this? Of course not as they were "subjects" and did as they were told and it is unlikely anyone would protest since vulpicide, melecide and felicide (the campaigns to slaughter and wipe out foxes, badgers and wild cats) were part and parcel of every day life and there were quite good bounties paid for every head whether adult or cubs.

The people of Britain and their rulers and nobility and later squires and gentlemen did not just wipe out woods and forests but every and any species they could for 'sporting fun'. Hares were wiped out in some areas and so they were imported from Europe to continue the 'fun'.  Some deer were wiped out and "new stock" imported from Europe. When red squirrels were wiped out more were imported and a century later the red squirrel decline was blamed on grey squirrels -used as scapegoats for human activity just as the badger after its legal protection in the early 1970s was scapegoated for bovine TB in the same decade (rather than very poor animal husbandry.

The history of the UK is one of human destruction of not just wildlife but the environment and the loss of forests is something the landscape has never recovered from. Even today mature forestry is felled for financial gain while red squirrels are shot, snared and poisoned to protect the wood. People need to learn about this and understand so that, if we are lucky, we can stop further loss in future although it is already too late. 

The dogma to cover up human destruction also needs exposing and next time you hear that such-and-such an animal is 'responsible' for another species declining or habitat destruction question it and ask questions such as 

"If badgers are a protected species and  wiping out 250,000 has had no effect on bovine TB why are they still being killed especially in areas where there is no bovine TB?"

"If red squirrels are endangered and protected as a species then why are they still being killed on private estates and in  forestry?"

"If wild cats are a protected species why are they still being shot,snared and poisoned?"

Remember that up to 65,000 badgers die on the roads every year in the UK and there are others victim to illegal  baiting, snaring and shooting, poisoning.

We need to teach the future generations the truth and not dogma. We are so quick to point at third world countries and their "abysmal conservation record" or killing of wildlife yet we turn a blind eye almost to the slaughter in Europe and the United States of wolves in particular but also many other species. We are a small island soaked in blood and it seems the public does not care.