Queen photographed strangling pheasant

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Queen photographed " strangling pheasant "

 

From AFP

19nov00

 

11:45 (AEDT) BRITAIN'S Queen Elizabeth was under fire from anti-hunting

campaigners today after British newspapers published photographs which

appeared to show her wringing the neck of a pheasant.

 

The pictures were taken while the 70-year-old monarch was hunting on her

Sandringham country estate in southern England.

 

According to the Sunday Mirror newspaper, she took the pheasant from the

jaws of one of her hunting labradors after it had been shot. Realising the

bird was not dead, she finished it off by wringing its neck, the newspaper

said.

 

" You have to question the Queen's moral judgement when she is seen to be

enjoying killing innocent creatures, " a spokesman for the League Against

Cruel Sports was quoted as saying in the newspaper.

 

" It seems to send out the message that the lives of birds and animals can be

used simply as people see fit. "

 

But shooting experts pointed out that wringing a bird's neck is the most

effective and humane way of putting an animal out its misery after it has

been wounded.

 

The royal family are committed hunting enthusiasts, employing gamekeepers at

their country estates. However, this pastime sits uneasily with Britain's

mostly-urban population, many of whom are fiercely opposed to hunting.

 

The Queen's grandson, Prince William, provoked controversy last year when he

took part in a fox hunt.

 

The ruling Labour government has vowed to introduce legislation that would

restrict fox hunting, or ban it outright.