When the hounds turn on sheep, we have a woolly Grand National
The rampaging horses, hounds, and deer involved in this oddball so-called sport have already caused numerous road accidents in the midlands.
The stags, panting and wheezing from hours of running from hunts, have been known to leap without warning onto busy roads directly in front of traffic and quite often onto vehicle roofs or bonnets.
The mounted warriors, dressed to resemble circus clowns, have little or no control over their packs of hounds once the chase really gets into its stride. When farm livestock come into view, hunters attempt feebly to divert the hounds. They blow their horns and bugles in a bid to remind the pack that they must remain focused on the legally prescribed and permitted quarry.
To little avail. The hounds in many cases lose interest in the majestic but cumbersome and bulky stag and decide instead to chase livestock. Sleepy-eyed flocks of sheep are favourites.
Understandably, since the frightened animals offer the hyped-up dogs a better day out and a quirkier run across country.
The flocks present a positively hilarious spectacle as they sprint across fields and leap ditches like the entrants in a woolly Grand National. The irate and frustrated shepherd no doubt sees it differently, but what does the hunt care about his place in the scheme of things?
The stag hunters react calmly and with imperious shrugging when confronted with the destruction of crops, livestock, and other farm property by the juggernaut of horse flesh, atavistic riders and bloodthirsty packs.
One hunter, speaking on a local radio station last year, refused to condemn an incident where dozens of chickens were sent fluttering when hounds broke into a farm complex. Feathers flew and dogs yelped as the fowl went completely berserk. To any normal person, farmer or otherwise, that incursion merited at least an apology.
To the hunter, however, it seemed to have been just a case of poultry in motion.
Yes, there is a strong case for a cull of stag hunters. I suggest that tranquilliser darts be used, and that when the Hooray Henrys awake, someone should be there by their bedsides to remind them that this is 21st century Ireland - not ancient Rome under Nero.
John Fitzgerald
Lr Coyne Street
Callan
Co Kilkenny
