Sharpshooter

The Americans speak of the “fair chase” but whatever our quarry, we should think about how pictures of it might look in the national press

One of the absurdities of the recent “goatgate” media frenzy (Sharpshooter, 7 November) was the caption of a photo in the Daily Mail. It purported to show “a majestic musk ox” that had proved “no match for a high-powered rifle” wielded by the self-proclaimed hardcore huntress.

But the animal in that particular photo was a Cape buffalo. Oh well, I suppose it has horns and hooves. The high Arctic and subsaharan Africa are so easy to confuse. As Humbert Wolfe wrote in 1930: “You cannot hope to bribe or twist (thank God!) the British journalist. But, seeing what the man will do unbribed, there’s no occasion to.”

Imagery trumps facts when it comes to sensationalism. Remember the Scottish media storm about mountain hare culls? That story was released to coincide with Easter. The hares had been in their white phase when the filming took place, so the “slaughter of Easter bunnies” angle was a picture editor’s dream.

It is a sad fact that we have to be mindful of the potential for media mischief as we go about our lawful activities. We should be wary of what can go wrong when images are shared. I am not saying that we should be ashamed of, nor furtive about, our sport; more that we should try to avoid obvious pitfalls. I recall a day’s hind stalking when my youngest son was about 16. He brought a schoolfriend with him.

I’d shot a beast and the stalker had bled the carcase and was performing the gralloch. I became aware that my son’s friend was filming on his smartphone. I asked him to delete it there and then. My concern was that he was bound to send it to friends — and then where might it end up? The stalker was clearly identifiable and might have been targeted if the imagery were misused.

Yet where do we draw the line? In part, it is a matter of context, custom and culture. A picture of a proud hunter with a blackface ram — also in the Daily Mail — looks ludicrous to most of us. We do not regard domestic livestock as sporting quarry.

I am only surprised the photo wasn’t captioned “come-bye”.

What the Americans rightly call “fair chase” hunting of a wild and wary animal is one thing. Anything that smacks of canned hunting is another. The pursuit of truly wild sheep species in their native habitat is some of the most difficult hunting imaginable.

Trophy peacock

That same American huntress also posted a photo of herself with a “trophy peacock”. Weird or what? But there was a time when British officers at Indian hill stations used to enjoy a spot of driven peafowl. And how does peafowl hunting compare with the pursuit of wild turkeys in the US? Moreover, it is salutary to remember that some Americans look askance at our own traditional driven pheasant shooting.

Peacocks are highly ornamental. But so are cock pheasants. Both make good eating; both are members of the pheasant family — as are domestic chickens, for that matter. Can you imagine the media reaction if somebody released a flock of Rhode

Island reds, left their wings unclipped and in due course started pushing them over a line of Guns every Saturday?

Think about that as you read the Daily Mail over your breakfast of dead piglet and scrambled bird embryo.

“The pursuit of truly wild sheep species in their native habitat is the most difficult hunting imaginable”