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Friend or Foe? Friend or Foe? Toleration or Extermination? Toleration or Extermination? “Throughout the passage of time no animal in Britain has suffered a more schizophrenic relationship with Man than the Fox. On one hand it has been vilified since time immemorial and persecuted as one of the most despised of predators while on the other hand it has been protected with passion for Man’s pleasure” (Lovegrove, 2007) “There is no doubt that invasion by non- native Species can have a negative effect on Biodiversity” (Smout, 2001)
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Friend or Foe? Toleration or Extermination?

Jan 06, 2016

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Page 1: Friend or Foe? Toleration or Extermination?

Friend or Foe?Friend or Foe?Toleration or Extermination?Toleration or Extermination?

“Throughout the passage of time no animal in Britain has suffered a more schizophrenic relationship with Man than the Fox. On one hand it has been vilified since time immemorial and persecuted as one of the most despised of predators while on the other hand it has been protected with passion for Man’s pleasure” (Lovegrove, 2007)

“There is no doubt thatinvasion by non-nativeSpecies can have a negative effect onBiodiversity”(Smout, 2001)

Page 2: Friend or Foe? Toleration or Extermination?

Killing versus Killing versus CompassionCompassion

‘The Kill’ Samuel Alken Jnr. Mid 19th century

Edward Augustus FreemanProfessor of Modern History

“The fox was a ‘subtle, pilfering foe’, a‘conscious villain’ and the highly organisedsport of fox-hunting could be seen as ‘justvengeance on the midnight thief’ The pursuitof such pests was represented as half battle,half morality play” (Thomas 1983)

“The manly sport of fox-hunting seems to me not tobe manly at all, but to be atonce cowardly and foolhardy”(Freeman 1869)

Page 3: Friend or Foe? Toleration or Extermination?

Countryside versus the Countryside versus the CityCity Anti Hunting poster

The Countryside March 2002“The Charter says country people need aCountryside Movement because their way of life is now under siege. opponents of country ways and values take issue with all aspects of the countryside’s management of animals including live animal transport, hunting, livestock husbandry, shooting, fishing, and national hunt racing”(Howkins 2001)

Page 4: Friend or Foe? Toleration or Extermination?

The Grey Squirrel, Alien The Grey Squirrel, Alien speciesspeciesGrey squirrel damage toan English Oak tree

British native Red SquirrelGrey Squirreleating a songbird

Damage to a roof Joist

“The ‘battle’ between the grey and red squirrel took place within the contest for the defining of the countryside within broader political cultures. The red squirrel was constructed as an establishedsymbol of an idyllic rural Britain. The grey squirrelwas both alien, destroying the indigenous cultureand liked by those seen as anathema to the countryside – people who lived in towns and thesuburbs” (Kean 2001)

Page 5: Friend or Foe? Toleration or Extermination?

City and countryside City and countryside attitudesattitudesProfessor S Harris 2006

BBC Wildlife MagazineSpecialist meat Co.Grey squirrel recipe

A Grey squirrel being hand fed in a City park

“The division between town and suburb and the country was reflected in the heated exchanges as early as 1931 in the Field and Country Life. Questions in Parliament and a Ministry of Agriculture conference soon followed. Indeed it was the very presence of grey squirrels intowns that led, some argued, to their endorsement by those possessing that apparent city characteristic of sentiment. In London’s Russell Square a group of six grey squirrels were admired by a crowd (of onlookers)(Kean 2001)

Page 6: Friend or Foe? Toleration or Extermination?

The future for the Fox and the GreyThe future for the Fox and the GreySquirrel – Use and Delight?Squirrel – Use and Delight?

Use - Sport Delight – Urban Foxes

Delight - grey squirrel

Use – Squirrelmeat at Budgens

“Nature is contested ground because the relationships and the confrontations between ‘use’ and ‘delight’ are real because one side’s totem is the other side’s pest and not all the arguments are on one side”(Smout 2000)

Page 7: Friend or Foe? Toleration or Extermination?

BibliographyBibliography•Alun Howkins, The Death of Rural England, A Social History of the Countryside since 1900, (Routledge, 2001)•Roger Lovegrove, Silent Fields, The Long Decline of a Nation’s Wildlife, (Oxford 2007)•T C Smout (Ed.) Nature Landscape and People since the Second World War, (Tuckwell, 2001)•T C Smout, Nature Contested, Environmental History in Scotland andNorthern England since 1600, (Edinburgh 2000)•Keith Thomas, Man and the Natural World, Changing Attitudes in England, 1500-1800 (Penguin 1983)Rob Boddice, Manliness and the “Morality of Field Sports”:E. A. Freeman and Anthony Trollope 1869-71, The Historian, 2005, E. A Freeman, “The Morality of Field Sports”, Fortnightly Review, new series 6 (1869) 353-85•Hilda Kean, Imagining Rabbits and Squirrels in the English Countryside, Society and Animals 9:2 (2001)•The Guardian, 7th June 2010•The Telegraph, 26th August, 2nd September, 11th September 2010