10 things you might not know about white stags

The recently released footage of a White Stag spotted in Scotland is causing a bit of a stir.

White stags always cause emotions to run high, probably because they are linked to us through centuries of legend and myth, so here are some handy white deer factoids while you watch and gape...

1. White deer are not albino. Their colouring is caused by leucism, a rare genetic condition that reduces the pigment of an animal’s hair and skin. Unlike albinos with their distinctive pink eyes, white deer’s eyes are coloured normally.

2. In Christianity, the white stag often symbolizes Christ, appearing with the sun between its horns.

3. The last recorded wild white stag in Britain was found decapitated in October on the border between Devon and Cornwell. It is believed it was killed as a trophy.

4. King Richard II used the white hart as his heraldic symbol.

5. November 3 is the feast day of Saint Hubert of Liège. Legend has it that Hubert was accosted by a white stag with a crucifix fixed between its antlers. The stag warned Hubert that he was heading straight to hell and so, to avoid his fate, Hubert became a Monk and eventually, the Bishop of Liège.

6. There are 546 pubs in the UK called the White Hart.

7. A German curse states that if a hunter kills a white deer, a member of their family will die within a year. Many who still subscribe to the superstition believe that the Austrian Archduke, Franz Ferdinand, was assassinated in Sarajevo as he had shot a white stag less than a year before in the Autumn of 1913. Europe was soon plunged into the First World War.

8. In Celtic mythology the White Stag appears when one is about to overstep the line, such as when Pwyll trespasses into Arawn’s hunting grounds.

9. If a white stag appears near Brodick Castle in Scotland, it is said that one of the Hamilton clan chiefs will soon shuffle off this mortal coil.

10. In the tales of King Arthur an appearance of a white stag is an omen that adventure is around the corner. Indeed after Arthur dreams of a white hart, he meets Merlin who predicts his death at Mordred’s hands. So, I wonder if Fran Lockhart, who discovered the white stag is off on a quest soon!

So Long Stinky

Sometimes things backfire. Sometimes you haven’t thought things through. Sometimes you wish you could go back to bed and start the day again. I wonder if that’s what’s going through the minds of the folks at the WWF who thought up the Stinky Fish campaign. Stinky was a puppet that harangued fish-eating members of the public in a number of viral video campaigns that were supposed to alert people of the dangers of eating unsustainable fish. One video even concluded with the puppet informing viewers to look for the Marine Stewardship Council label when buying fish as “everything else is stinky.”

When the campaign was launched on Thursday 17 January, Giles Bartlett, Fisheries Policy Officer at WWF-UK said: "Overfishing is the single biggest threat to our oceans. It is vital that consumers have much better information to help them choose which fish to buy. WWF's new 'Stinky Fish' website will provide exactly that.”

Unfortunately for the WWF and MSC Stinky did not go down well. Seafish, the UK’s statutory body attacked the campaign for using “misleading, inaccurate and out of date information while the Scottish Salmon Producers’ Organisation (SSPO) immediately slammed the WWF for "confusing, rather than educating" consumers. Not even a week after the campaigns launched MSC removed itself from the controversy and disassociated itself from Stinky. Then on Saturday the puppet found himself tossed back to the sea. WWF removed the videos from the Stinky site where the little blue fellow now admits, “There's been quite a bit of fuss over me recently. In fact, I seem to have stirred up quite a stink!” Surely part of the problem had to be the name. Stinky Fish? As in smelly, not very appetising fish? The number one rule in marketing; Don’t remind people of your products’ worst aspect.

So bye bye Stinky. Your heart was in the right place, but that’s probably not enough to get you off the hook just yet. Don’t worry though, if you’re still interested in finding out what fish are ok to eat and which you should avoid then you can search the MSC’s sustainable fish lists here.

Do we care about imported food in our restaurants?

My bus journeys into work have been brightened since I discovered The Archers podcast (Get ready for the ructions when Brian reveals what happening to Adam and Debbies’s inheritance) and best of all, the Farming Today podcast means that you don’t have to get up at stupid-o-clock anymore to keep up to date with the latest rural news. This morning I caught up on Saturday’s show which was about the tricky subject of imported beef.

A quarter of the beef we eat is imported. Half of that number comes from Ireland but we also import from places like Botswana, Namibia and the United States. The EU has just slapped a temporary ban on Brazilian beef. Due to the way herds are farmed in Brazil, its impossible to trace individual cuts of beef back to a specific farm unlike European cows which are ear-tagged from birth. The worry is that Brazil has a massive Foot and Mouth problem although some say that the ban has more to do with the European beef industry protecting their markets.

Most members of the public interviewed on the programme said that they wanted to know where their beef came from, but the show revealed that the majority of this imported meat doesn’t end up in our supermarket-bought slabs of topside. Instead its journey leads it to our restaurants and fast food establishments. It makes sense really, as imported meat is generally cheaper than our home cuts. There was even a suggestion that when some restaurants claim their meat is locally sourced, they actually mean it comes from a local wholesaler. However, the meat itself may still hail from Africa or the Americas. Hardly local produce then.

This got me thinking; food miles and animal welfare seem to be high on everyone’s list of priorities at the moment, but do these principles end as soon as you walk through the door of a restaurant? Have you ever asked where the produce served up in your local eatery comes from? Do you think that restaurateurs will soon come under pressure to reveal the provenance of their grub?