Gormley rides to defence of the stag

ENVIRONMENT Minister John Gormley has delivered a decisive blow to carted stag hunting.

Apart from compelling hunters to avoid chasing stags in future, allowing them instead merely to create a scent for the dogs to follow, the minister’s new licensing arrangement has imposed many other restrictions that will make stag hunting with hounds in Ireland a thing of the past.

Animal protection groups have lobbied for decades against this blood sport.