Sir, What a depressing sight it was to see the recent Ear to the Ground programme on RTE (January 15th). This dealt with a County Tipperary farm which runs organised pheasant shoots.
These beautiful creatures are bred to be blown apart by businessmen and farmers as a sport. This provides the means by which some hearty females can continue to reside in their lovely homes - apparently (one of these told us during the course of the programme) they once lived in a much bigger house on an island. The mind boggles how they supported that.
Sensible people can surely not object to man (as it invariably is) pitting himself against nature with decent odds - especially if this channels aggression away from his fellow man or woman. We are hunters by nature; most of us are carnivores; and so on, and so on ... we all know the arguments. But it would be heartening to think that we had evolved to a higher level than that which considers coralling, terrifying and then slaughtering birds a manly activity - and don't tell me this is for food! Who can blame that poor reporter for schlepping back into the house to escape the carnage? - Yours, etc.,
Bray,
Co Wicklow.