Irish should sign petition to ban the brutal, needless hunting of foxes

A petition on the Care 2 website calls on the European Parliament and Commission to ban fox hunting throughout the European Union.

The petition is worthy of our support, because Ireland permits this cruel and indefensible blood sport. It serves no purpose, apart from giving pleasure to riders and hunt followers, while causing immense suffering to the animals.

Fox hunting has nothing to with pest control, and hunts ensure a plentiful supply of foxes for the next season. Instead of seeking the quickest, most humane means of dispatching a fox, the hunt will pursue each animal for miles, until its lungs give out and exhaustion delivers it to the pack to be torn apart.

An even worse fate awaits any fox that finds refuge underground. Men with spades and terriers encircle the refuge. Having dug into the sanctuary, the hunters drop down a terrier to retrieve the doomed quarry. Fox and terrier suffer dreadful injuries as they fight, and the hunt fans cheer them on. When the fox is finally dragged to the surface, it is thrown, dead or alive, to the waiting pack.

I hope that Irish citizens who back the protection of our wildlife heritage will sign the Care2 petition. Current EU legislation allows member states to draft their own laws in relation to blood sports. The petition calls for a legally binding EU-wide prohibition on fox hunting. If this can be achieved, other cruel practices, such as bull fighting and hare coursing, may follow it into the dustbin of history.

John Fitzgerald,

Callan,

Co Kilkenny