Terror in schoolyard: let’s call off the hounds

THE scenes of terror and cruelty witnessed in the Co Meath village of Kildalkey should leave no fair-minded person in any doubt as to what stag-hunting is about. It is a throwback to the dark ages.

With the stag and pursuing hounds rampaging through a primary school, distraught children were confronted by images of man’s inhumanity perpetrated by so-called sportspeople.

Exhausted and petrified, the majestic animal selected for that day’s hunt was bleeding and covered in muck and sweat, its tongue hanging out, its eyes bulging with fear as the baying pack closed in.