MAN AND BEAST

From time to time we read surveys of young urban people’s knowledge of the animal world. We already know the young think money grows on trees but astoundingly they often do not connect milk with cows or bacon with pigs. Any relationship with the countryside or farming has been entirely severed – school visits to modern farms are to them a total revelation. I am an inveterate townie, but now over 70, I can recall rural scenes from my native Scotland and appreciate something of what has been lost.

A Team of Scottish Clydesdales

I have never been involved with horses yet several friends have adored fine ponies, hunters and even thoroughbred racehorses. I have a soft spot for heavy horses, with their massive 18-hand bulk, feathered hooves and docile nature who were used typically to pull ploughs, brewers’ drays and drag timber. There are four recognised breeds in Britain, the Shire, the Clydesdale, the Suffolk Punch and the Percheron (originally from Northern France).

A majestic Shire horse

A Shires-pulled dray was used at the Whitbread Brewery at Chiswell Street in the City of London until 1976 and a fine sight it was. But my earlier memory was of Clydesdales pulling a plough on a Kincardineshire farm in about 1951, probably at the very end of the heavy horse era. How splendid those gentle animals were and how painful it must have been for the ploughman finally to part with these horses, by then family friends! You could have a quiet dialogue with the Clydesdales in a way you could not with a Massey-Ferguson tractor. So much for the march of progress, though happily many heavy horses are now bred and exhibited in the United States.

Another very attractive animal is the deer, plentiful in Scotland, a shy graceful creature who is easily frightened. There are said to be 350,000 in Scotland, so many they are considered a pest by some.

Ubiquitous roe deer

They do damage saplings but I would have thought we could still get along with them. Some conservationists support the idea of reintroducing wolves (and lynx) to the Scottish mountains in a Darwinian move to provide a predator and control the deer population. Other countries in Europe have done this, but naturally there is some alarm given the fearsome reputation of wolves.

The fellowship of Man and Beast is a vexed question. Foxhunting is one of the great rituals and traditions of the English countryside but the fox must be protected from cruelty and the use of hounds creates many difficulties, but I hope the sport survives in a recognisable form. There are limits too – I do not hear many voices in favour of the reintroduction of grizzly bears, currently getting a bad press after Di Caprio’s performance in The Revenant!

Much pleasure was generated by the antics of another bear, the panda Tian Tian at the Smithsonian Zoo in Washington. He was ecstatic about the recent heavy snow and rolled around holding his feet, protected by his very heavy coat, his normally sad eyes glowing with excitement.

Tian Tian loving the Washington snow

I suppose the key friendship between Man and Beast remains that with the domesticated pet dog. We are currently helping to look after a Shih Tzu “Prapso” called Arthur, a bundle of energy and a most affectionate and delightful companion. Cute, isn’t he?

Arthur, the Shih Tzu Prapso

SMD

24.01.16

Text Copyright Sidney Donald 2016