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Many years ago, around 1992, when I started to think about a
working springer I also regularly visited England with the cargo ship I
worked on in those days. We had 2 ports we visited twice a month, London and
Blyth, in England. In Blyth there was a very friendly Gun and Fishing store
owner who provided me with spaniel videos and different British sporting videos,
like "Jack's Game". I also got a lot of those BASC (British association for
shooting and conservation)magazines from his private collection as well as the
new magazine "The Sporting Dog" and every other field sport magazine I could lay
my hand on. I had a lot of time to read on the ship so after a while I knew
a lot about the British field sports and conservation and spaniel and retriever
training. In those days the conservation of small game was not very developed in
Sweden but expensive research was done on how to improve it. I had seen the
light in the BASC literature and proposed a use of that knowledge, after all the
countryside and farming are pretty similar, as is the climate. Nobody was
interested. Today we use methods of conservation here in Sweden that are copies
of the British methods!
Paragraph 1. The Swedes are never wrong but knows
best.
Paragraph 2. Should the Swedes after all be wrong, then
paragraph 1 is still applies.
Already in those days I had got a little tired of different
types of hunting here in Sweden where a lot of prestige was involved. I want
hunting/shooting to be relaxing and I fell in love with this rough shooting type
of field sports and still love it today, even if we have no spaniel anymore. Its
not the size of the bag that matters at the end of the day but how much fun I
and my dogs have had. Sometimes, when the hunting is expensive like grouse
shooting over dogs in the mountains is today, I also like to have a lot of birds
to put in the freezer. I do not like to pay a lot of money just to be free to
carry a gun and let my dog run on empty grounds. Basically the EU is to blame
for hunting becoming very expensive in Sweden in these days, unless you can
shoot on your own land.
For example the Swedish current government is very worried
about the exploding wild boar population. The 500 000 mark in the numbers of
boar is within reach within 10 years. They cost huge money for the
farmers and cause serious accidents on the roads that doubles every year (more
than 1500 in 2008, causing 8 loss of human life). Yet the shooting of them has
become so commercialised so not many can afford to pay for it.
I think that in most parts of the world a
natural way of living is becoming unnaturally difficult and expensive. I do not
know who or what is to blame. In the dark middle age hunting in Sweden was only
permitted for the King and those approved by him. Then came a period when
hunting was free for anyone, like "the beach is for anybody" in the tropical
coastal areas around the globe. Today the King of the dark ages is back but his
time his name is Profit!
Torsti
Borta Med Vindens Kennel www.rospigan.net "If you pick up a
starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you; that is the
principal difference between a dog and a man." /Mark Twain
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