The secret art of poaching…..
It’s a subject close to my heart. Many people see poachers as the modern definition, gangs of organised thugs in stolen cars with illegal guns going out in to remote areas and slaughtering herds of deer, these people are exactly that, thugs. Normally they’ll be into other things such as fencing stolen good, drug dealing, burglary and the such like. These are not poachers these are criminals out for financial gains any which way they can.
This not the poaching I’m on about. I’m on about the secret art of the old time poacher, the gentleman poacher of yesteryear. As long as there was gentry and powerful land owners to lay down laws against those who are not so privileged, there have been those who done what was needed to survive and would break these laws if need be. Since the Rabbit was introduced by Norman noble men, the laws that followed insured that only those land owners would enjoy the bounty of the country side.
Today we face recession. This will bring about financial change in many peoples lives, and with this brings desperate times. People tend to look at the old ways to survive the new times and poaching is one of these. Here in the UK, we have so many laws now to stop you from just nipping out with an air gun and bagging a few pigeons for the pot, if you do so and don’t have permission from the land owner, you’re poaching. You’ll be a criminal! Why have so many laws been introduced. Simply to make you a criminal for trying to feed yourself, this isn’t a modern thing, its gone on since man owned land.
The control of the nation by food, water and convenience has meant few people are free thinking enough, and courageous enough to take the plunge into the black art of poaching. I’m not telling you to go out and poach, quite the opposite, I’m here giving you a warning about the consequences really. Times are changing and public opinion has been changed by the media and those that want to control us all. The dumbing down of the populous is so vast now that anyone who pursues country pursuits is almost branded a criminal. The media paints farmers as yokels, smallholders as “strange” and hunters as barbaric. All of these ideas planted in the general populous minds are contrived to stop people fending for themselves. Reliant on what we are handed by grocery stores.
How many people know what pigion, squirrel or rook tastes like? Have you ever eaten rabbit or hare, wild mallard, goose, coot or morehen? I doubt few people reading this would have eaten any of these. I have, as I’ve been out and caught or shot these for my own pot. I’m fortunate in the fact I have land to shoot and hunt over, but how long until this is outlawed. The day that all forms of hunting become illegal will be the day I will turn to poaching. This is the crux of this article. We all have a right in my mind to be entitled to feed ourselves from what nature has to offer. We are all creatures of this earth, but have been pushed and pulled and restrained into the laws that surround us, no longer do we follow the practical sense that is natural law, we have man made laws that have been put in place to stop us from honing our natural instincts and rights to feed ourselves. We have to rely on what is put on shelves in supermarkets, we have to trust the foods we buy and all the ingredients that are in them. The food that is poisoning us and our children. Today we have more chronic illness than ever before. We are bombarded with chemicals in every aspect of our lives, from washing powder to deodorant, food and drinks, air fresheners and the such like. We don’t need these chemicals in our food. If all farming went back to organic ways, and all food manufacturers used natural ingredients, we wouldn’t all be ill, our national health system wouldn’t be close to collapse, we wouldn’t have so many people on benefits because of ill health, no more obesity, no more chronic illnesses. People would have more choice in their lives, because they would have clearer heads to think for them selves, and make their own choices.
Unfortunately I cant see a complete reversal of what is happening to my fellow western man. This is why D and me want to get away and have our own small holding, so we can opt out. We can live our lives naturally, as nature had intended, to grow and harvest our own crops. Raise and harvest our own animals, to have the chance to hunt fish and shoot for the table legally. To be the people we are supposed to be.
The poacher of yesteryear is still out there, they live among us, they shop in the same shops they sit next to you on the bus. Most of these poachers don’t even know who they are yet, as the time has not come to do what they feel is right. The black art of poaching is a secret art that is to be kept secret, there is no guild of poaching, no website or forum, there are a few books on the subject but none of these will tell you what to do, they just give you ideas as to how to do it. I believe that even though our world is changing some arts will carry on and poaching is one of these.
Royston
