Blooding is the practice of smearing an animal's blood on the face of the person who killed the animal while hunting. An article on blooding in the British royal family says "Spreading blood on a person’s face is an ancient ritual performed to celebrate a hunter’s first successful kill."[1][2] The ritual of blooding continues today, among hunters -- especially upon children.[3]
In his memoir Spare, Prince Harry described how he was forcibly blooded at age 15[1] by his guide Sandy Masson who cut open the stag Harry had shot, pushed Harry's head inside the carcass, and held it there while Harry struggled to free himself.[4] When Sandy released him, Harry tried to wipe the blood from his face, but Sandy insisted that he "Let it dry.”[5]
It was Sandy Masson, too, who had blooded Prince William three years earlier.[6] Painter André Durand has created "First Blood",[7] a painting imaginatively depicting a 14-year-old Prince William wearing ermine robes and his face blooded, with a dead stag.[8]
Tom Quinn, author of Gilded Youth,[9] a book examining the ways in which members of the royal family raise their children, writes that few expect Kate Middleton (the wife of Prince William) will allow her children to be initiated with the blooding ritual which, in the royal family's tradition, sees young princes smeared with the blood of their first kills.[10]
Controversy
In 1914, humanitarian and animal rights campaigner Henry Stephens Salt wrote an essay "The Blooding of Children" declaring that there are no more “loathsome” traditions connected with "sport" than blooding.[11] That essay was published in the book Killing for Sport: Essays by Various Writers (1914), edited by Salt.[12]
In the news
The blooding of a 13-year-old American boy was in the news in September 2024.[13]
Risks
Scott Durham, a scientist studying deer, has said: "... it’s theoretically possible that one of a few neurological viral diseases could be contracted if an infected deer’s blood came in contact" with a human's skin.[3]
^ abDubuc, Don (2024). "The Blooding Rite -- Why Do We Do It?". Don Dubuc the Outdoorsguy. Retrieved September 7, 2024. I had seen enough hunters, mostly kids, who after killing their first deer get smeared with blood from their prey to know the drill. Some went willingly;
^Lane, Megan (15 June 2000). "Blooded but not bowed". BBC News. Retrieved October 10, 2024. The coming-of-age portrait will be posted on the internet when the prince turns 18 next Wednesday.Prince William turned 18 on Wednesday 21 June 2000.
^Crawford-Smith, James (February 28, 2023). "Kate Middleton Unlikely To 'Allow' Children Role in Royal Blood Ritual—Book". Newsweek. Retrieved October 5, 2024. Quinn writes that 'few expect' Kate will 'allow' her children to be initiated with the 'blooding' ritual which, in the tradition of the royal family, sees young princes smeared with the blood of their first kills.
^ abSalt, Henry S. (1914). "The Blooding of Children". Henry S. Salt Society. Retrieved October 2, 2024. Of all practices connected with 'sport', none are more loathsome than those known as 'blooding,' whether it be the 'blooding' of children, which consists in a sort of gruesome parody of the rite of baptism, or ...
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