Longford Senator and animal rights activist at odds over foxhunting bill

A Longford Oireachtas member believes there are numerous benefits to foxhunting, but an animal rights activist has described the sport as 'cruel' and said the majority of Irish people are against it.

A bill to amend the Animal Health and Welfare Act 2013 was introduced to the Dáil on May 25 by two People Before Profit TDs Ruth Coppinger and Paul Murphy.

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The bill is is coming up for debate on Wednesday, December 17 and Deputy Coppinger has called on a free vote on the issue, arguing 'TDs who want to protect foxes should not have to follow their party leadership on this issue.'

Longford Senator Paraic Brady is the chairperson of the Drumlish/Ballinamuck Gun Club, which is run under the remit of the National Association of Regional Games Council (NARGC).

Senator Brady, who spoke about the issue in the Seanad, said he is confident the bill will be resoundingly defeated and 'enough like minded people' vote against it.

Senator Brady said he believes politicians such as Deputy Coppinger and her supporters such as TD Paul Murphy are 'completely skewed' when it comes to rural Ireland.

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"They voted against the Nitrates Directive.

"They don't understand how rural Ireland actually works and the amount of people that are employed in the hunts.

"The amount of off-spin that's from the hunts with horse feed and with shoe and with leather and plus all the kids that are out there learning how to manage their ponies and clean out stables and husbandry of horses."

Senator Brady has claimed if foxes have no natural predator and if foxhunting stops the fox population will 'suddenly' increase.

"They prey on all the birds that nest on the ground such as the curlew, the corn crake and the pheasant and if the fox population increases, then all of a sudden you're putting them birds in danger."

Senator Brady also stated that "these people seem to think that the foxes don't take people's lambs, sure of course they take lambs".

However, Aideen Yourell of the Irish Council Against Blood Sports.

She said studies had shown that disease was a bigger killer of lambs than foxes and she strongly disagreed with senator Brady that foxhunting was not a sport.

"According to the masters of foxhounds' rules and regulations they describe foxhunting as a sport.

"We're talking about people taking out a pack of dogs, followed by horses, and getting a fox, and rousing it and chasing it across the countryside and that's done for sport."

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Aideen said she was born in the countryside, near Ballynacarrigy in county Westmeath, and she believes most people are opposed to the 'cruel' sport of foxhunting.

"We had a poll done by Red C in 2019 and it down into urban and rural and it showed that rural people were around two points below the urban side for being against fox hunting."

She said there is just one foxhunting group in county Longford and two in county Westmeath.

Aideen, who is based in Mullingar, also believes that there should be a free vote on the issue.

“People abhor cruelty generally speaking.

"What they do is very cruel and that should be looked at before all this other stuff.

"He [Senator Paraic Brady] never talks about what they do to the fox.

"I'd like to hear him describe that.

"I'd like to hear him say if that's merited, you know, going out after a fox, chasing it for hours.

“That's the big thing.

"It's like a bully in the schoolyard, it's that mentality.”

Aideen, referred to one video where a foxhunting group are 'digging out a fox'.

"They have a terrier latched onto its head, pulling it up to the surface.

"The dog is just locked onto the fox's head.”