What Do You Know of Life, Death, Birth or Killing?

Author and fell sheep man James Rebanks writes that it's time the BBC and other television networks dropped the "Wind in the Willows" descriptions of the countryside and presented a little more of the blood, guts, death, and dirt of real rural existence.

Two generations ago, everyone killed at least some of the things they ate, or saw them killed at close hand. Think of Seamus Heaney’s poem about the killing of a pig when he was young – animals being slaughtered in public was considered normal, and still is over much of the globe. But in many parts of the western world we have become ashamed of death. In this strange imaginary countryside, farmers have become the worst version of us, the people with bloody hands who do our dirty work.

In an ideal world, everyone would have some domesticated animals and cultivation near where they live – not just because that is the most efficient way to produce food but because it is good for us to see, feel and experience what others do to produce our food.


We may not want to look upon the killing in food production but doing so would force us to ask questions that are central to being human. Do you, or do you not, accept this reality you have created by existing and eating? Will you kill the animals you eat? If you won’t, should you really expect someone else to do it for you? Will you kill the pests that prey upon your salad? And, if not, are you really prepared to starve to prove your point?

When visitors see the moles on my fence, they often ask: “Are they hung there to scare the other moles?” In fact, I explain, they are hung on the fences because the mole-catcher gets paid per animal (£5 per body is the going rate), and they are displayed out in the open to avoid anyone cheating their way to a higher fee.

I have given this explanation to dozens of people and if no one has been unduly troubled, it’s because people can handle reality if they understand how it works. The dead moles on my barbed wire will stay.