Re: Off topic - hunting in Greece
- Subject: Re: Off topic - hunting in Greece
- From: G* P*
- Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 10:13:45 +0100
On Sun, 9 Sep 2001 08:32:24 +0300, you wrote:
>Good morning,
>but this morning my garden was less enjoyable than usual. The Greek hunting
>season has begun; there is even a car, from Athens according to the number
>plates, parked near our house (!) and we hear loud shots from "everywhere",
>Hail is raining onto the roof and the walls, and there are several dogs
>running around, frantically searching for birds. The hunters throw litter
>wherever they walk and there are literally thousands of empty cartridges
>lying everywhere, including our garden. One fears to walk outside in one's
>own garden, as they seem to shoot at whatever moves.
>
>Each year an enormous amount of animals (and people?) are shot by 'mistake',
>sometimes killed but mostly only wounded by the hail. I don't think that
>hunting birds is any worse than hunting other animals, but the way the
>hunting is done here must be the worst in Europe. I thought they were going
>restrict the hunting with a new law, but things seem pretty much as usual.
It is the same here in the Algarve in Portugal. If it moves shoot it!!!
Fortunately they have been slow to start this season but during the winter
is dangerous to go for a walk in the countryside, you never know who is
lurking with a gun behind the next tree.
Those of us who like to encourage wild life do find it extremely sad to see
a hunter with his haul of tiny sparrows around his waist, not even large
enough to eat. I am sure it is a cultural thing, as when hunters are
challenged when in someone's garden they say rather menacingly "this is OUR
country, you foreigners cannot own Portugal!". Perhaps one day they will
learn to respect life.
Despite this it is still a wonderful place to live and make a garden. My
Thunbergia grandiflora is framing the window where I am sitting with its
wonderful pendant blue flowers.
Graham in a pleasantly warm and sunny Algarve.
---- Graham Payne ---- dpsgkp@mail.telepac.pt ----
