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Tuesday's Letters: Keeping a balance between predator and prey
"PREDATOR and prey" is one of Mother Nature's rules, going back millions of years.
Big fish eat little fish, bigger or more powerful animals chase and kill smaller or defenceless species. The chase and the killing, which in man's eyes, but not in theirs, may be cruel, is the natural way of life on earth. For some species it is part of daily life. But in some places man is the only predator, and his duty is to act so that there is a reasonable balance between different species, or that the prey which are pests are confined in numbers.
Man often fails in this duty, being too immersed in his affairs, and it is fortunate if one of his roles as predator can attract participation by developing it as a country sport.
But there are among us, for whom ultra-civilisation has cast out many of nature's requirements, those who think that wild animals (even fish in their different element) have human sensations. Among them are your two correspondents (Yorkshire Post, August 4), William Snowden and Eric Beechey.
They castigate those who, with the necessary aid of dogs, would hunt for a wild animal which itself is a savage predator.
They ignore that the chase is a natural feature of the life of many prey. Agonising about this resulted in research into the most acceptable way of culling foxes and it was found that this would be hunting with hounds. And one of the advantages of this is that it is usually the old or ailing fox which is killed, leaving the strong to multiply – a certain aid to conservation. The natural instinct of a prey is to escape the predators in chase, and if such a prey has sensations, it would likely be excitement.
If it is desired to eliminate predation, would it be proposed to kill all cats (which maim, torture and kill our songbirds), all seals (which tear lumps out of salmon and other fish even if they do not eat them), all the pike which chase and kill the smaller fish, all the fish-eating birds, all the hawks which pounce on other birds, and further afield, all the tigers, lions and other predators which pull down and maul their often beautiful prey?
It is likely that the Hunting Act will be repealed, and your correspondents will find the Code of Conduct of Hunters will assuage their finer feelings, even if they oppose Mother Nature.
From: RC Dales, Church View, Brompton, Northallerton.
From: William Snowden, Farnley Ring Road, Leeds.
PHYLLIS Capstick (Yorkshire Post, August 11) contends that fox hunters are conservationists, and that "only true country people can possibly understand" that sometimes one has "to be cruel to be kind".
Incongruous.
Man is only a part of nature. He is not her master. He is not
omnipotent or omniscient. He is not God. It is nature, not man, that strikes a balance between predators and prey.
Whenever man meddles with nature, it is often to the detriment of all. Myxomatosis, for example, largely robbed the fox of his natural prey,
the rabbits.
And yet man continues to ravage the earth and plunder her natural resources: denuding forests; polluting land, sea and air; encroaching on habitats, and driving so many species of life to the very edge of extinction.
When man learns how to live in harmony with nature, he may finally learn how to live in harmony with his fellow man.
Health cash link to need for home rule
From: Della Petch, Campaign for an English Parliament, Burdale Close, Driffield.
THE issue of car parking fees (Yorkshire Post, August 7) goes much deeper than our rulers will care to admit.
Hospital parking fees have been abolished in Wales and are being phased out in Scotland. Just like the rising prescription fees, the British government only charges patients in England for these essential services.
A government can be judged on how it treats the weakest in society. Thanks to the Barnett Formula, patients in England are under-funded by over 200 per head of population, per year, compared to those in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. So while we in England pay the highest stealth taxes on healthcare and everything else, we receive the lowest funding.
England may have the shortest waiting times (doctors and nurses know all about those dubious figures), but we are also denied some life-prolonging drugs and other treatments available to the neighbouring Celtic fringes, due directly to this underfunding.
So next time any MP pontificates about the need to charge for
healthcare access, remember that they only ever mean those in England should pay these fees.
They do not say the same about Scottish patients, because their colleagues would lose their places in the Scottish Parliament. That's also why none of the main parties will discuss the direct impact that the Barnett Formula has on English taxation and healthcare.
Alan Johnson, the previous Health Secretary, said that the Barnett Formula was a price worth paying to keep Scotland in the Union. It's a very high price indeed and a fickle friendship that demands it.
The truth is, we simply can't afford not to have an English Parliament, because as long as we are the only remaining nation in the UK ruled wholly by the British Parliament, we will always be the first place for the Scottish Chancellor to come calling in order to fill that gap in his tax coffers and the last place career politicians stick their necks out for.
New political path needed
From: David W Wright, Little Lane, Easingwold, North Yorkshire.
THE two contrasting opinion columns by Peter Mandelson and Ken Clarke (Yorkshire Post, August 11) about the economy and the state of the UK simply show how out of touch is the former, due no doubt to his
complete lack of business experience and background.
Mr Mandelson is clearly in another world and one wonders just what
would happen to this country if we were to be saddled with another term of a Labour government.
However, while Mr Clarke is a political heavyweight, it is a great pity that he is still a Eurofanatic along with his boss David Cameron and other members of the Conservative Party, which makes them similarly unelectable.
This leaves the Lib Dems who are an irrelevance, with the UKIP on the right wing of the political scene – so the UK is in limbo and needing urgently a new political direction to get back from the doldrums and Banana Republic status.
Working until you drop
From: Jon Burch, Kilham Road, Langtoft, East Yorkshire.
I HAVE now realised that Gordon Brown's government is behind a large job creation initiative, as very soon no-one will be able to retire due to the cost of living rising and pension age increasing.
More companies will be faced with dealing with death in service, thus causing a need for almost every business in the country to employ at least one extra person to deal with the increased level of
administration involved.
Good old Labour, using their usual short-term strategies to create longer term problems and more work for everyone else.
Heather-burning study is good money up in flames
From: John Richmond, Harrogate Road, Ripon.
AS if your main headline (Yorkshire Post, August 6) isn't enough of the scandalous waste of 500m by Defra on so-called consultants, your writer, Sarah Freeman, adds coals to the fire on page 11 on the issue of burning heather on our moorlands.
To think that a team headed by Professor Joseph Holden from Leeds University is to be allowed to spend 600,000 on scientific research on the subject of burning heather is outrageous. It is funded by the National Environmental Research Centre, no doubt yet another quango.
When oh when will these people realise that money doesn't grow on trees. Neither does it grow on our moorlands, except that over at least the last two centuries and longer, moorland farmers as well as a small army of gamekeepers have sought to manage our moorland to assist both with farming and keeping a tight eye on the wildlife, allowing both to operate side by side.
Sarah Freeman's article rightly draws attention to the foolhardy plan of the massive drainage that was undertaken in the 1960s and '70s of our moorlands. That was encouraged by government intervention for which we are now seeing the catastrophic results – flooding.
It doesn't take rocket science to understand that if you drain the moorland of natural bogland, the streams and rivers turn into raging torrents and homes are flooded in our towns and villages.
One can only hope this is not yet another half-baked plan by those who claim to be environmentalists or, even worse, consultants.
Experience is more often than not the best teacher. Those who have
lived their lives on and adjacent to moorland and their families before them know far more about this particular subject than some group of scientists from Leeds University.
Helping hands for beekeepers
From: Gerald Hodgson, Spennithorne, Leyburn.
AS a hobby beekeeper, I would like to comment on Sheena Hastings's interview with David Shannon (Yorkshire Post, August 11).
To set up as a commercial beekeeper, it may be necessary to spend the substantial sums mentioned and to go on 10-week courses, but the overwhelming majority of hobby beekeepers get started with very little cash outlay and a lot of help from friendly beekeepers.
I would encourage anyone interested in this fascinating and rewarding craft to make contact with their local beekeepers'association which will be very willing to help and advise.
Wrong star gets in the picture
From: Peter Birdsall, Buckstone Avenue, Leeds.
YOU printed an article and photograph about an engine which has been 50 years on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway (Yorkshire Post, August 11).
Unfortunately, the photograph was not of the L&Y Class 25 0-6-0 No 957 as stated but of a GWR 5700 Class No 5764, which also appeared in the film of The Railway Children but certainly had no connection with railways at either side of the Pennines until preserved at Haworth.
It was built in Swindon in 1937 whereas the correct 957 was built for
the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway in 1887.
Identity crisis
From: AW Clarke, Sutton-on -Derwent, York.
HEARING the end of a radio news item the other day, I was delighted to hear that a government had been suspended for corruption and further inquiries were to be made regarding the previous Prime Minister's huge fortune.
Unfortunately, the country was not, in fact, ours, but the Turks and Caicos Island government, which is a British Overseas Territory, and the over-riding power is with our current Government.
Pot meets kettle?
Terror puzzle
From: John Gordon, Whitcliffe Lane, Ripon, North Yorkshire.
IT would make the loss of more than 200 brave soldiers (Yorkshire Post, August 17) easier to understand if the Government would tell us what sort of terrorism the Taliban has been planning in British streets. Was it roadside bombs?
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Tuesday 07 February 2012
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