Pig of a Task – A dogs Life.
Environmental awareness does not just mean the land; it should also mean the awareness of the creatures around us. All creatures great and small.
In the Marlborough Sounds the hill country is full of wild pigs, goats and possums. The wild pigs and goats are a clean source of meat from the wild for any culinary exploration. To gather from the wild for a source of food in New Zealand this meat can be dressed with vast array herbs, growing wild also.
However, the care of the dogs and the environment for some hunters border on mindless macho insensitive blindness and cruelty.
Dogs are not feed for days and the quarters in which they are housed, slightly off ground tin or wooden crates, are exposed to all weathers and winters with minus zero degrees below, the New Zealand bush a dampness that permeates the body sucking any warmth the pig hunters dogs are left in this state until the next hunt.
Food consists of what is thrown in and water available (in winter only when it has thawed).
To raise awareness even for the farming sector, the question is, as a creature of this world how would you like to be treated: Freezing like the hunters dog, or would it be like the sheep huddled in the middle of a treeless paddock in a circle heads down desperately trying to get cool, at the height of the summer heat, or squeezing against the fence for a power pole shadow, or cattle in a bare paddock of no shelter breaks facing away from torrential rain while the farmer is inside with a warm fire and shelter.
Farm management practices, animal welfare and pest control, (possums) pig hunters should be exposed for the abject cruelty of the animal welfare of the hunting dogs. Also the practice of dog mauling the hapless victim in a painful hold waiting for the hunter to catch up to either shoot, or in some cases knife the victim (pig) to a painful death.
To hunt the wild in New Zealand is a wonderful adventure, in some of the most stunning bush country, from deer, pigs, goats, rabbits, possums, and most hunters foraging for food for culinary wild hot pots feeding the community, or collecting furs from the possum for clothing many of these hunters are kind thoughtful hunters. Fair game hunters, however the ones that treat the dogs locked for weeks on end in the most appalling conditions, dogs locked in the dark of a horse float these practices should be banned and criminalized.
To be “clean and green” perhaps NZ should look under the leaves in the bush and start with the not only the land, but the welfare of the animals, all creatures great and small.
