| Clarence House: Harry Innocent of Shooting Claim |
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| Written by Joanne Leyland | |
| Wednesday, 31 October 2007 | |
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Page 2 of 3 
In January, pictures appeared to show a beater on a hunt led by Prince Philip
clubbing a fox to death with a flag pole.The royal family's Christmas and New Year holiday at Sandringham has also produced images of the Queen herself wringing the necks of wounded birds so as to finish them off during shoots led by the royal men. Prompting further debate about the royal love of shooting, a 'friend' of William and Harry has even gone public with concerns that the princes are "gung ho" when it comes to their almost lifelong relationship with guns. The royal siblings were introduced at an early age to blood sports by their father, who was keen to see his children follow the historic tradition of joining the regular hunting and shooting parties which play a significant part in the royal calendar. However, regular sightings of the three princes with guns in their hands have invariably prompted controversy on a fairly regular basis. In 1996, the Wales family hit the headlines after newspaper photographs appeared to show Prince Charles jokingly clipping his youngest son around the ear, resulting in an armed Harry - then just 11 years old - almost falling over Wiliam's pet dog, Widgeon, during a Christmas shoot at Sandringham. The royal tomfoolery whilst armed caused the British Safety Council to publicly condemn the Prince of Wales as "irresponsible". 
As with generations of royals before him, William in particular has always been a passionate advocate of blood sports. However, despite his early introduction to the gyn, it wasn't to be until he was fourteen that the prince was 'blooded' after he shot a stag as part of a deer-culling procedure on the Balmoral estate in Scotland. The process of 'blooding' sees the face of the debutante gently smeared with the blood of the dead animal and is a tradition to which Diana was introduced after she shot her first (and possibly last) animal following her 1981 marriage to Prince Charles. |
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