Fox hunting: Predator control or outdated blood sport?
'Fox hunting is a necessary part of the control of foxes, which can cause damage and a loss of earnings to farmers,' senator Seán Kyne said
Fox hunting was robustly defended in the Seanad recently as an effort to control a predator that affects the livelihood of farmers.
However, the practice was previously criticised in the Dáil as a cruel and inhumane blood sport that causes unnecessary suffering.
Longford Fine Gael senator Paraic Brady, who raised the issue in the Upper House, said foxes can get out of control, and there is no predator for them other than humans and the odd car going down the road.
“When foxes are out of control in this country and the numbers are high, we see the loss of lambs, fowl, and livestock. When you have loss of fowl, lambs, and livestock, you have loss of profits.
“Farmers are indebted to our gun clubs that control vermin, which includes foxes. They are not pets. They are vermin. They hunt for their young.
"We will see it in this urban area shortly, as fox numbers increase in the urban area of Dublin.
“Only then, when perhaps a child is taken out of a pram or a child is injured, will people understand what this is. This is not a sport. This is farmers protecting their livelihoods and what is theirs.
“We are not gentry, and I do not like to be portrayed as gentry. It is not done as a sport. It is done to control a predator that affects our living.
“That is the message that needs to be told. I do not like the portrayal of the people of the country as gentry. That is far from what we are,” he said.
Leader of the House and Fine Gael senator Seán Kyne said Mr Brady had quite rightly stated that fox hunting is not a sport. “We are a long time from which was set during the time of the gentry.
“Fox hunting is necessary to control foxes. On many farms, foxes take hens and lambs, and I think, they have even taken kittens. They are a problem,” he said.
Mr Kyne said Mr Brady would join with him in not wanting to see the cruelty that sometimes is displayed in illegal activities. Nobody would condone that, he added.
“However, fox hunting is a necessary part of the control of foxes, which can cause damage and a loss of earnings to farmers,” he said.
However, the Dublin West PBPS deputy Ruth Coppinger, speaking in the Dáil in May, described fox hunting as a cruel and inhumane so-called blood sport that causes unnecessary suffering.
Packs of dogs chasing after a fox relentlessly is obviously a very stressful and unnatural situation, she said.
Ms Coppinger said fox hunting has been banned for over two decades in Britain, and she failed to understand why anyone would defend it here. The fox is a mammal native to Ireland and is part of Ireland's biodiversity.
“Fox hunting is of no benefit to anybody. Foxes are the last wild dog in Ireland, and they should be protected. We need to put it up to TDs to stand up and do that,” she said.
Ms Coppinger said foxes naturally control their own environment, and they also control rodent and rabbit populations — which cost farmers a lot of money as well.
“They can save farmers money, in particular arable farmers, who suffer a lot from the rabbit population,” she said.
Agriculture minister Martin Heydon, replying to a recent Dáil question from Social Democrats deputy Sinéad Gibney said a detailed debate was held during the passage of the Animal Health and Welfare Act 2013, and the Dáil decided to allow the continuation of fox hunting in accordance with an appropriate code of conduct.
The act allows for the establishment of codes of practice and for the adoption of codes published by other persons for the purposes of providing practical guidance relating to any aspect of it, including fox hunting.
Voluntary codes of practice have been established by the Hunting Association of Ireland, which detail the conduct to be adhered to in respect of the hunting of foxes and the treatment of the animal during the hunt.
The code also considers local concerns and the concerns of the landowner(s) on whose land hunting takes place, he said, adding: “I have no plans to change the existing legislation.”
