Surgery Date.
This week, I have been instructed to report to the Coimbra University Hospital on Monday, the 2nd of October to prepare for my radical prostate surgery on the 3rd. They said two months, so slightly over the intended time for the surgery. The surgeon indicated the timing was well within reason.
The Abandonment of Science and Logic in Wildlife Matters.
As a retired farmer, having spent my early years being brought up on an estate on the Island of Mull and someone who has spent many years in the bush and on the inland waters of Zimbabwe, I find myself scratching my head on the action and words of some of the ‘Greenies’, many politically-motivated desk-driving conservationists. They are ably supported by the wealthy celebrity know-it-alls, who visit game parks at the most opportune times for game and bird viewing, becoming ecological experts. Their access to the media makes it hard to challenge the irrational with facts.
“People don’t respect science anymore, and they’re making decisions without really having evidence. People are just emotive, and that is my biggest concern.” - Maxi Pia Louis, director of the Namibian Association of Community-Based Natural Resource Management Support Organizations
I can remember my father and his team's efforts to prevent poaching and control wildfires set off by some mindless visitor to Mull. In the summer, preserving the fish from poaching ensured both salmon and sea trout reached their spawning grounds upstream in and beyond Loch Baa. Yes, we did net, but under strict rules with set months, further broken down into set days. An incentive to ensure numbers were maintained for the following year. Our best customers were the hotels, especially the Western Isles Hotel in Tobermory.
We did not have grouse in the moors on Mull, but controlled burning was required to maintain healthy young heather for sheep, red deer, and many bird species that flourished there. This included curlews, redshank and snipe, which were plentiful in those days. There was always one time of the year, late Autumn when my father would shoot at the deer indiscriminately. I say indiscriminately, this is from what I observed; he rarely hit one, he was a poor shot. This was the time of year when the deer happily jumped the deer fences to enjoy the turnips planted and reserved for the sheep's winter feed. Deer were fine if they stuck to the hills, in his eyes.
“My father was probably close to the worst shot in the world, and I thought I was perhaps the second worst until I was called up in the army, then I found, luckily there were many worse than I, most on the other side.”- Peter McSporran
My pre-college practical was on a farm in Ayrshire, where the senior member of the family I worked for followed the hunt. To my surprise, fences on many farms had been substituted for hedgerows, something that did not exist on Mull. Why? The main reason was that we had no foxes on Mull. Fox hunters prefer to jump through hedges instead of over barbed wire or stone dykes, while farmers were happy using fox hunters as a means of vermin control. Now, a single man with a rifle replaces all the support staff of a hunt, from grooms to gamekeepers and huntsmen.
“We are at a fast rate in the first world moving into a time where the welfare of animals takes precedence over that of humans, especially rural dwellers.” - Peter McSporran
Now, fox hunting is banned throughout the UK, and many hedges have been removed to be replaced with wire. The desktop warriors want you to return the hedgerow; fox hunting would have ensured their continued existence. And that is the crux of many of the wildlife issues. Emotional perception overrules experienced practical skills.
Not stopping at fox hunting, they would like to see grouse and pheasant shooting banned. This is despite the scientific research that shows ground bird numbers thrive better on managed moors and woods than in uncontrolled conservation areas, even those run by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). As far as I can see, this society has changed from a conservation organisation to a political lobby for the left, believing only in its own utterances, not scientifically proven ecological facts.
“When the gamekeepers, shepherds and even the hill farmer are forced from their way of life, who will become the guardians of the countryside? It certainly will not be them earning big bucks on the media or those non-residents who have bought the vacated rural homes for annual holidays.” - Peter McSporra
Nor do they seem to understand the impact of the swelling red deer numbers on the environment by forsaking culling, which can jeopardise the very viability of hill farmers, never mind the damage they do to young plantations. In Africa, it is elephants; no fences stop them in their search for food, and conflict with humans is inevitable when their numbers grow above the capacity of their restricted range arbitrarily imposed by humans.
Just recently, the UK banned the importation of hunting trophies. I can only think because they find the idea of shooting wild animals abhorrent despite being happy to sit down and eat a lamb chop, fillet steak or sea bass.
In my years in office at the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU), with the advent of the land crisis, those targeted initially being mostly game farmers and ranchers, it was deemed their land was underutilised. Through this, I was soon to learn the true value of game farmers and ranchers, along with both practical conservationists and professional hunters, in the conservation and management of wildlife, including the environment they thrive. Most hunters I knew in Zimbabwe were avid conservationists with a vast knowledge of the bush and its wildlife, contributing time and money to the cause. The one underlying factor for their success in conservation was by putting a value on the game, even the birds or fish, either for viewing, as a trophy, or just for meat, often a combination.
“Those who benefit financially remove most illegal nets and snares while willing to take on armed poachers. Those spouting emotional conservation theories on social and mainstream media should spend more time in the bush or lake actually managing conservation. I doubt they would have the gumption for that.” - Peter McSporran
I am not a hunter, I can claim to be a poor fisherman, and, as such, I have travelled to many of the wild spots in Zimbabwe and Zambia. Other than those in National Parks, many dams are in conservation areas, whose owners, often syndicates, make money from hunting, fishing and environmental tourism. Their business is managing the animals and environment, and while they exploit the animals, this income is used to sustain the fauna and flora for future generations. The last thing they want to do is destroy the foundation of their business, the wildlife. Most of these areas are adjacent or close to National Parks and act as a buffer zone, or maybe the local security in reducing poaching and the destruction of the bush by fire. Unlike with the red deer in Scotland, they know numbers have to be controlled for their own preservation. I remember whilst in the Merchant Navy during the late sixties, we visited Tsavo in Kenya, and I was shocked at the degradation of the flora there. At that time, the theory by the so-called environmentalists was to leave well alone, “Nature will control the numbers, especially the elephant.” Numbers of elephants continued to swell until the droughts in 1970/71, they decimated not just the elephant numbers but all the animals that relied on the flora for their survival. From then, it should have been learnt that when wild animals have their habitat restricted, their numbers need to be managed. No matter where it is in the world. Further, if you remove their value, they just become nyama.
Once there is value to wildlife, game ranchers, farmers and landholders, large and small, become the best conservationists. Just look at the whitetail deer story in America. Unfortunately, there are those who take advantage of or bend the rules within even a good system to the delight of social media. Those actually involved in conserving wildlife through utilising it, including farmers, landowners and conservatory/game park managers, are last to be heard.
“For wildlife conservation to succeed, cognition of those who make a living from the practice of its management must be heard above the loud voices of those supported by emotional theories built on perception.” - Peter McSporran
1992.
As I mentioned last week, I got a wake-up call as I entered the Red Lion pub at Harare Sports Club to see a poster with my face proclaiming me Club Piss Cat of the Year. One I was not particularly proud of and unsure if I deserved it as I was more a weekly drinker there than a daily drinker. Perhaps the daily barflies had all won it in previous years. Nevertheless, that award, combined with my weight, gave me the incentive to consider my health and contribution to life. It is all very well having managers, but to advance, you also need to apply yourself to something other than bar politics. It was the 16th of January, I remember the day well as I told Lee Vermaak, who I ran the Mede Farm with, that I was going to make an effort. The first step was onto the scale, one hundred and twenty-two kilograms, and then registering at a gym. The first one I went to was a sleazy place; it may have been called the City Gym, and despite the odd clientele, I persisted there for a while. In that short period, I realised alcohol also had to be dropped if I was serious about changing my life, at least temporarily, and I stopped having red wine, which made me feel sick if I attended gym in the afternoon and then the vodka out of my soapies (vodka, lemon barley and soda). I had previously decided beer was the major contributing factor to my weight, not the lack of exercise.
“Strange how the removal of alcohol from my ‘soapies’ slowed down considerably at the bar, and people who I had previously held serious, intelligent conversations with became fools.” - Peter McSporran
It was not long before I changed to the Executive Gym, a big improvement in clientele and equipment. We even had people instructing us, and it was not long before it was suggested I should join one of the classes doing circuits. The army was the last time I had done anything as stupid as that, plus they suggested I should start running or at least jogging. This I did, running to our boundary fence on the dam and back, a distance of four kilometres, which took me a month to do without stopping. I joined the lunchtime circuit class and did what I could. People like Ian Harris, Scotty Crockart and Roger McDonald would put me to shame every day, but eventually, I gained some semblance of fitness. I think Diane wondered where I was going at lunchtime as I found her on the street one day as I exited the gym, and there she informed me I had a problem in setting a goal. I would focus on any particular goal until I achieved it, ignoring everything else. That was not strictly true, but I got the gist of it. In May, by Trade Fair time in Bulawayo, I was down to ninety kilograms and steady, easing up a little on the no alcohol but still attending gym four days a week and running most days. When we were finally discharged from the army, I had promised myself never to run again, yet another broken promise.
I remember I was 90 kg as that year I judged the fatstock and Herefords at the Trade Fair Agricultural Show, always a great social event. One of the exhibitors and a friend, Guy Hilton-Barbour, informed me I was half the man I used to be, in reference to, I had hoped, my weight loss. Funnily enough, CC Sales, the countrywide cattle auctioneers, used a photo of me judging the cattle there as their picture for the 1993 calendar.
That year, I went on to judge at Gweru, Chinoyi and Harare. I lost some money at the Trade Fair Casino that year and, with it, my enjoyment in gambling, although I did continue to enjoy the odd low-stake evening, more for a social than the gambling. I had finally come to realise that there are only two types of gamblers; losers and liars. Kevin James reminded me of this just last month at dinner while reminiscing of days gone by.
On my return, Neville Brown, the chairman of the Commercial Oilseeds Producers Association, a post I had held some three years previously, asked to meet for lunch. There was someone else; I cannot put a face to him, and the gist of our conversation was whether I would consider standing as the Vice President of the CFU. This question was entirely out of the blue, and while an honour to be asked to stand would mean a huge change in my life. Basically, it would require me to be off the farm five days a week, from lunchtime Monday until Friday evening. It would further strain my personal life with Diane to be left on the farm while I was in the city or visiting some other farming centre. It had also become a very political post, as the land issue had raised its head with the designation of some farms for resettlement under the guise of being underutilised or perhaps not fully utilised. After a discussion with Diane and also with my managers, luckily, Ian Lindsay was around, I decided to stand and learnt that there would be an election as a standing council member in the form of the Mkonde Branch Chairman, Nick Swanepoel, who would contest the position. I was the outsider, having left the CFU Council, from where the President and Vice President were normally elected. Both the previous presidents had come from branch, and the associations wanted one, so appeared not all were happy with Nick, being a Branch chairman. Needless to say, he was elected two years later as my Vice.
Many of the council members knew me either from my being on council previously or from meeting them on my cattle judging duties around the country. Of those who did want to interview me, I clearly remember the team from The Commercial Cotton Growers, Ian Millar and Guy Menage, gave me the most challenging time during that interview. At the CFU congress in August of that year, I found myself duly elected as Vice President of the CFU; what had I done?
Disclaimer: Copyright Peter McSporran. The content in this blog represents my personal views and does not reflect corporate entities.
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