"Clapham man" has about as much knowledge about the countryside and hunting, and the benefit of tourist hunting as I do about the Zodiac signs of those on Love island. He has been fed a diet of anti-gun and hunting for generations of BBC and MSM "country file" and Chris Packham,David Attenborough &Co to belive that there are two lions,3 deer, one blue whale, two foxes and a partridge in a pear tree left in the wild of Europe and Africa.J

So you are going to have an uphill struggle anyway trying to explain this difference to a mind poisoned by generations of the idea that hunting in any shape or form is a class issue reserved for Toffs and Horray Henrys who still can pop off to Africa to bag a few of the big 5 at the drop of a top hat. Indeed they are folks out there who can do it, but they pay handsomely for it and think nothing of dropping 400k plus to hunt the big 5 every year. That's a cash injection of over 5million in some local 3rd world economies like Zimbabwe for example, which pays a lot of wages for the local game wardens.Not to mind providing fresh meat for a whole village to a bunch of people who are suffering malnutrition. Or of course, said same animals could be poached for their trophies by poisoning water holes and wiping out herds for a pittance and a massive profit of unscrupulous ivory and animal parts dealers in China or Saudi.

For the rest of us mere mortals, an African hunting safari is an almost impossible dream or a once in a lifetime experience. So maybe we should point out to those like Clapham man without us or those with the money paying for it. There would be even less wildlife than there is now,and when did they see the antis and the spiky-haired mutant brigade ever put their hands in their pockets to fork out some of their dole money to pay some Zimbabwean game warden less than their months dole in a year's wages, to buy himself a new pair of boots to protect their wildlife they fawn about?

So tell us this? Where exactly is the main national herd of these pureblooded 5000-year-old interbred Irish goats in Ireland?Are they located in one point like the national herd of Red deer in Kerry? Be pretty simple then to say that hunting them in that area is prohibited? Or better still, capture all these old Irish goats out in the wild in the 25 and move them to a goat sanctuary someplace in Irelandideally suited where they can be then kept and properly maintained and culled when needed? And the hybrids can be hunted in the rest of the country? I'm sure UNESCO will throw you a few million quid of global funds for such a project if they are that critically endangered? After all they do this in Africa and the Amazon rainforest almost on a monthly basis?

Still a lot of "all hat and no cows!" as they say in Texas Being targeted..Proof, please?...Also, how are you going to know the difference between a purebred and a cross with a feral goat of domestic origin without a DNA test?

They use a virtual fence to control where the goats roam...each goat has a GPS collar.

I'm very curious as to how this will work, because either there has been a misunderstanding on what a GPS fence actually is? Or do they have some sort of deterrence device in the GPS collar to "persuade" the goats not to go past a certain point?IE a shock collar🤔which fIK is not something you can use on domestic stock under animal cruelty law?

Well, it seems to be working out well. Was on the hill this morning and the goats are munching away, still no fires.

Well , unless we get another 2/3 weeks of heat like on Monday and everything becomes paper dry, and by natural causes, and/or your resident firebug doesn't decide to visit and set the place ablaze, you won't have fires. But fatter goats.😁

I quite frankly dont give a toss about Howth,and the goats up there or whether you have 5,50 or 50,000 of them in that your utterly overpriced real estate ,or whether it is eaten by goats or burns to the ground every year .

If you want to get rid of gorse properly it involves four things,none of which people like doing.(1)Roundup weed killer (2)physical work (3)spending money(4)being enviromentally unfriendly,but actually being enviromentally friendly in the long run by doing controlled burning.

If you want 100,000old irish goats running about ,you are welcome to them.Leave the rest of us to get on with controlling the hybrids and ferals in the rest of the country.

Excellent idea!! Goats cheese.

Townies for yer!🤣🙄