not necessarily as a knee-jerk reaction to the ridiculous recent request for the culling of foxes and badgers etc. (for specific and well-debated political reasons), but certainly as a counter foil to such examples of the Destruction of Diversity in our Counties and Countrysides in the name of endemic 'horse has boltedism' aka Human Stupidity or Neglect of our Children, I'd like to submit the idea of CROW or the Campaign for the Reinstatement of Oxford's Wildlife.
And by 'Oxford's Wildlife', I of course mean, "All those ancient lifeforms and breeds and species that have found themselves roaming our fields, filling our skies and swimming our rivers since time immemorial."
I'm talking about re-wilding this fine land of ours COUNTY BY COUNTY until all the Diversity that once was free to roam here is free again.
I'm not talking about some sad-looking pandas, gazelles or tigers trapped in private Zoos or Nature Reserves for PROFIT.
I'm talking about learning to live alongside Nature (not being heartless enough to blame a wild animal when our child is (left unattended and) injured by it), life as it should be lived. I'm talking about getting back to some basic natural lifestyle values that have been all but eradicated in our rush to build and build and build until our cities and farming projects have ruined all that used to be WILD and ALIVE in our countrysides.
County by county, from Oxfordshire through Buckinghamshire and beyond, all four points of the UK compass, we should proudly re-wild our counties and show the rest of the world that Man Can Live In Harmony With The Animals He Shares This Earth With; a symbiosis can be achieved, given sufficient education and Custodianism.
To get the ball rolling, here's a list of extinct mammals that could be sustained in a re-wilded Oxford. What say you?
