The feral goat ought to be cherished
Be caught killing a swan and you’ll make a guest appearance on the Nine O’clock News, emerging from court with a coat over your head, to the mortification of your socially ostracised nearest and dearest. Mallard and woodpigeons are a step down from swans in the wildlife social hierarchy. They are fully accredited members of our wild fauna, but you are allowed to knock them out of the sky with the blessing of the law. Pheasants have even lower status. They are, after all, mere blow-ins, glorified farmyard chickens imported for sport, their numbers replenished by releases of hand-reared birds.
In a wildlife version of India, rats and mice would be classed as ‘untouchables’, so low in the pecking order as to be outside the caste system altogether. Found guilty, in their absence, of revolting crimes, they have been sentenced to death. Such ingratitude! Brown rats certainly carry disease, but few of us would be here today were it not for them. Outbreaks of plague used to occur in Ireland, killing large numbers of people. The disease was carried by fleas, which lived in the fur of the black rat. Then, in the 18th Century, the larger brown rat arrived from the East. It ousted the black rat and plagues no longer occur.
