Animal welfare not an rural-urban divide

RESISTANCE by the hunting fraternity to this government’s attempt to improve animal welfare through the proposed Puppy Farming Bill is hardly surprising – after all, hunters and coursers routinely frighten, hurt and kill animals for fun.

It is annoying though, that these same people have been allowed to turn the current discourse on this bill into a “rural versus urban” debate. As someone who grew up on a farm and still resides in rural Ireland, I resent the implication that common decency and compassion is somehow the preserve of city dwellers. If these gentlemen were to get out of their four-wheel drives for longer that it takes to kill a fox, then they would discover that the great majority of us who are of rural Ireland, deplore animal abuse. Rural Ireland has had enough of hunters creating an urban-rural divide where none exists in an effort to divert attention from the fact opinion poll after opinion poll has shown that the vast majority of Irish people oppose killing animals for fun.

Nuala Donlon