From squirrel rice to wild boar civet

To make a good squirrel rice dish, the squirrel is caught and skinned, taking care to remove any hair embedded in the meat by the shotgun pellets. The tail can be used up to the second or third knot. The head, once skinned and cut into pieces, is added with the other pieces, and the liver is reserved to cushion the bite. Once skinned, the squirrel is opened along the belly, slid open, and washed under running water. It is then quartered and browned with the wood pigeon and the rib of the guinea fowl.

We come from here, from a time when the only requirements for hunting an animal were that it be alive and good—and the squirrel is said to be very good indeed. The hoopoe is apparently bitter, like the starling or the grey heron, the jay's meat is so similar to that of the wood pigeon, and once on the plate, we wouldn't be able to distinguish a thrush from a field bird.

In every small farmhouse there was hunger and shotguns ready to quell it. In rural areas, hunting was just that: another way to obtain animal protein without having to raise it. There were no laws regulating the practice, no game lists, no need to establish wildlife protection programs, and yet a reasonably healthy balance was maintained.

At that time, and we're talking about the beginning of the last century, in the city, hardly anything was known about the comings and goings of the peasant people, and if it was known, it didn't arouse the slightest interest; because they were rustic or primitive.

Then, to facilitate this, came the mechanization of agriculture and the Green Revolution, which exponentially increased land productivity and our power to influence and disrupt wildlife and the environment. The population of towns and cities grew with people from all over, changing the way of life. The popularization of leisure activities, combined with the advent of private vehicles and the need to damage the local countryside every weekend, began to break down the walls of these two communities, which until then had been more or less separate.

The countryside and the things that happened there began to awaken the interest of urban societies and became everyone's concern. It was no longer necessary to have any inherited connection to the land to go hunting, or to make a living, to use a redundant phrase. All that was needed was a firearms license, a shotgun, and a permit issued by one of the hunting reserves created by the newly formed Catalan Hunting Federation. At the same time, in rural areas, the percentage of people dedicated to the primary sector was rapidly decreasing, and those who remained were changing their relationship with the environment, driven by the intensification of agricultural work.

All of this, to put it simply, has meant—and I'm speaking generally—that farmers have currently left hunting in the hands of enthusiastic proponents of gunpowder and 4x4s, but we still need some of their services. We need, for example, given the lack of other proven effective methods, for them to reduce the wild boar population that damages our crops. In return, we have to accept that hunting reserves release caged partridges, quail, or pheasants into our fields so that a handful of hunters can come and pass the time dressed up as soldiers.

I wouldn't dare say whether we're making progress or not, but to build a community as diverse as the one that currently lives (or sleeps) in rural areas, a great deal of balance is necessary. We coordinate with the wild boars, we celebrate the intelligence of newcomers who understand where they've landed, we applaud the drivers who respect fields and livestock, and we curse those who don't.

That harmony our grandparents enjoyed will never return. The context has changed drastically since squirrels were killed without a second thought, as it violated the principles of ecology—a discipline yet to be born, and one we now so poorly understand that everyone uses it for their own ideological purposes. But the context still exists. Now, we are all part of it, and in this new context, sport hunting finds a place that is difficult to defend. If before, people killed out of hunger, now they kill for sport. The tradition that underpins hunting has completely vanished under the ravages of time, and if any worthy heirs remain, they have my utmost respect, but they must understand that it no longer makes sense in the current context.

I fear that hunting (and my grandfather will forgive me) can now only find its place as one more tool—not the only one—at the service of technical criteria for regulating wildlife imbalances. And who establishes these criteria? Well, I have no idea. If it were up to some farmers, there wouldn't be a single wild boar left alive; if it were up to some environmentalists, there wouldn't be any intervention at all, and even more so; and if it were up to the government… In short, the government has only reacted when the problem has threatened the all-powerful pork industry, in order to protect the production model it has long championed. In short, to protect itself.

And since the gap through which the urban world penetrates rural life is not a valve but a hole with both entry and exit points, the problem of wild boar overpopulation has transcended the agricultural sphere and invaded the asphalt. Wild boars, now more than ever, and although some may not realize it, are everyone's problem. Besides being a potential vector for disease transmission and damaging fragile habitats, they disrupt leisure activities, rummage through garbage containers, cause damage in urban parks, and in 2024, for example, were responsible for some 4,000 traffic accidents throughout Catalonia.

Now it's up to those of you who aren't descended from squirrel-like rice to decide how to solve this problem. I recommend, from experience, that you don't put all your faith in the administration. Nor can we pretend it will resolve itself, as if this were the heart of the Amazon rainforest, with natural forces powerful enough to smooth out any anthropogenic rough edges. We are, collectively, primarily responsible for this mess, and turning our backs on it only makes it worse.

I understand that this vision does not fit any simplistic current of peace and harmony with nature, but we will agree that, as long as we do not change our way of living in this world, and at the moment it does not look like this has to happen, it is advisable to make some uncomfortable decisions in this regard.

Once you've gotten used to living with the contradictions involved in solving these kinds of problems, you might be able to start considering options for combating some of the other urban pests you suffer from; such as cats, pigeons, parakeets, or tourists.

And keep in mind that weapons aren't always necessary. In certain species, technical criteria seem to favor sterilization.