Do you care where your bristles come from

Shavejourneybadger said:
As someone who works for a wildlife conservation charity, I have to respectively disagree with this statement, badgers are very clean animals, one of the only animals to change their bedding in there sets on a regular basis and also deficate at least 20 meters away from thier home, badgers are a very clean animal
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This is true and I was being a little naughty, for the sake of humour, with the predilection that Springers (especially ours back then) have for rolling in animal scat and badger being by far the worst faecal scent ours brought home when I was a child.
As that child I also took great delight in installing myself high in the woods around our house in the small hours and watching badger cubs at play, which in turn instilled great admiration and my own `interference` during in the '80's culls.
 
tomj777 said:
This is true and I was being a little naughty, for the sake of humour, with the predilection that Springers (especially ours back then) have for rolling in animal scat and badger being by far the worst faecal scent ours brought home when I was a child.
As that child I also took great delight in installing myself high in the woods around our house in the small hours and watching badger cubs at play, which in turn instilled great admiration and my own `interference` during in the '80's culls.
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I was afraid I may have stared a row lol....glad o see a fellow animal lover...thanks tom! Interference is good for a good cause ;)
 
Anyone know what badger tastes like and how it is best cooked? I'm imagining woodsmen sitting round a fire, wearing badger Davy Crockett hats, roasting steaks on the ends of sticks but I expect some sort of stew would be best.
 
They're going to be well worked and sinewy creatures, I would think. Little non-moving meat. Stewed, like rabbit would be better. That said, Bruce Lee showed us that roasting was his preference for cat in 'Game of Death'.

What was that about scat? Isn't the farmyard scent the attraction to a fresh boar brush?;)
 
Norfolkdick said:
Greetings

I strongly suspect the reality of obtaining badger pelts for brush making (especially as they are harvested in a primitive country: now lets be realistic the bulk of rural China is stone age) is that the animals are trapped and remain alive suffering for some time and are most likely dispatched with a whack (or three) to the head with a stout stick. Compassion for wild creatures is largely a 'Western thing' and I have little doubt does not exist in the mind of third world hunters and trappers.

I still use both badger and boar brushes in spite of being fully aware of these points and I shall continue to do so. I do not kid myself that badgers are somehow killed by the euthanasia fairy!

Regards
Dick
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Dick - I think I'm with you on this one. I'm very uncomfortable with they way that we in countries deemed to be a part of the Developed world tell the less developed nations to desist from practices that they themselves went through. It's all part of the process of process of moving from one phase to the next.
It's easy enough to avoid if you wish to, but most people are happy to eat fish even though most of those harvested from the sea have gone through the equivalent of drowning.
If you wish to retain an ethical stance (and I have no problem with that whatsoever) then synthetic or horse hair will satisfy those requirements.
 
Not to be deliberately argumentative, but I do wonder just how ethical horse hair collection is. We read that it is part of the "natural grooming" but I do wonder whether there are lines of horses tethered up to have manes and tail hair removed for the industry. For some reason, I can't get Angora rabbits out of my head when I think about horse hair brushes.
 
Far as cooked badger goes I believe it's pretty rank Big Bro B. One of my favourite writers, ' Bri ' Plummer who managed to exist off the land on a smallholding for nearly 2 years during the big freeze up in the early sixties did actually resolve to try it after hearing tales of Romanies sitting down to badger steaks round a the campfire. When he managed to penetrate the flea infested body, slice through the thick layer of protective fat and get to the worm ridden interior he was not enthused by the streaky dark meat. Heroically broiling it and simmering for hours priduced an inedible and incredibly horrid stinking meat which even his terriers wouldn't touch. Fortunately ferrets will eat anything.

JohnnyO. o/
 
Can't help wondering what natural products our synthetic brush handles originate in. I suspect that petro chemicals originating through the oil industry plays a part. Just becomes very difficult in this modern world to seek out items which offend no one's beliefs. Still, I did enjoy today's shave using my horn handled Vie Long .

JohnnyO. o/
 
JohnnyO said:
Fortunately ferrets will eat anything.
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Have to correct that. I've owned ferrets for many years and I can assure you that just isn't the case. Naturally, they are scavengers and mostly eat fruit in the wild but will only eat meat when pushed. Badgers and ferrets are all part of the same family, Mustelids.
Have to admit that as far as bristles go, I'm fully responsible for where my products come from, especially my food. I'm fully aware of all sides of the food industry. I don't currently own a badger brush but before I might, I will find out what goes into their production.
I personally don't believe it is right to bury your head in the sand about these matters, no matter the issue. It is illegal to even touch a badger carcass in the UK but we have to understand they are classed as vermin in China, but what change could we hope to effect in how they are treated? Badger bristles may be sold for a long time to come, (possibly only displaced eventually by synthetic) but if you aren't aware of their treatment, how will you know to stand up and do anything about it? Besides, how big is our more informed community, compared to the many badger users the world over?
 
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