Prince William's 14-inch dik-dik spear....I shit you not.

[Pert_UK]

"Prince William has killed a tiny antelope on holiday in Kenya with a 7ft spear, according to reports.

The story in the Mail on Sunday is likely to reopen the debate about the Royal Family and their participation in blood sports.

The prince had been taking lessons in hunting from a Masai warrior when he took a shot at a dik-dik, a 14 inch (35 cm) high native deer.

Legei, the tribal village's Masai leader, told the newspaper that William experimented with the spear...by targeting tree trunks in a village clearing.

He said: "Then we took him out hunting and he crept up like we do on the first prey he saw, a fully grown dik-dik"...

Animal rights activists reacted angrily to the suggestion the prince had killed the deer for sport...

However, according to the Press Association, Royal sources have cast doubt on the truth of the story. "

Full story:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3139181.stm

This has got to be bollocks. Bear in mind that I wouldn't even wipe my arse on the Mail on Sunday - it is a ridiculously rabid, reactionary and absurd right-wing newspaper.

For a parody of it, see here:

http://www.dailynail.co.uk/

[Rocinante]

1. A

14 inch deer?

[Pert_UK]

2. D'oh!.......A deer.............a female deer..........................

Yep. They're pretty damn tiny those dik-diks, but they can jump around and run pretty fast.

They don't look very good as trophies....

"Oh my god, it's coming right at us!"

P.

[CanuckAmok]

3. Princ e William would make a better looking trophy than would a Dik-Dik

n/t

[Rocinante]

4. That Rabbit's

Dynamite!

[Zero Gravitas]

11. Look at the bones!

[sandnsea]

5. Guess so.. link

"slightly larger than a hare"

http://www.awf.org/wildlives/67

Why anyone would want to hunt these is beyond me, except for necessity to feed your family. How manly is it to take a spear and kill a little rabbit-like creature? Seems like something a 12 year old might do, but not a full grown man.

[JackSwift]

6. I find nothing wrong with hunting

if they are going to eat the kill.

[Rocinante]

7. Me either

Just give the creatures a sporting chance, as contrasted to blazing fire from a truck or baiting a field.

[Pert_UK]

8. I'm on your side, but the article suggests he wasn't going to eat it....

The article implies that he was basically testing out his spear and skills, killed the dik-dik and then gave it away.

However, as this story came from a ridiculously unreliable source there is not much point in arguing about it.

I don't have a problem with him doing it for food or ceremonial reasons, but if he was just out trying to kebab deer for fun then it's pretty sick.

P.

[T_i_B]

9. Hunting is a very emotive issue in the UK

Inparticular fox hunting. the Labour government has been trying to ban it for years now and the pro-hunt lobby has sprung up with the Countryside Alliance holding a 400,000 strong march in London last September. It's an issue which usually gets the UK Duer's at each others throatsbecause, even though the issue is not important, it is highly emotive.

Myself, I support (well I tolerate) hunting certain animals. A fox for instance is not an endangered species but a farmyard pest and such I don't have too many gripes with upper class twits hunting those. Something like Badger baiting however I most certainly do not approve of.

[supernova]

10. Well, if Wills gave it to

the other Masai to eat, I don't have a problem with it. Being raised in the rural south, I can identify with subsistance hunting.

If he did it just because he could, then that suggests quite a cold callousness on his part.

Hey Brit DUers, something I don't understand about foxhunting. Do they or do they not have to cross property lines to do this? I'm not able to figure it out just from what little I've read about the foxhunting issue. And yeah, it would piss me off if a bunch of dogs and folks on horseback came plowing through my garden w/o so much as a by your leave.

We have foxes around here, but I've never thought of them as much of a pest, just part of the environment. Here, if you have chickens then you might have a problem.