whippet wrote: you will get an element of people joining irish hunting clubs, however this does not mean an increase in the number of actual hunts. To the OP, your language is very emotive 'blood tourism' etc, I don't hunt but I have been at a few hunts alright and the only blood i witnessed was the blood on the faces of the hunters when their faces catch off briars and branches. There are few few live animal hunts and alot more drag hunting in ireland (which does not involve the chasing of any wild animal). When a fox is being hunted there are various unwritten rules as to the nature of the chase and this included not raising the animal when it 'goes to ground' etc. In the wild foxes are chased by it's natural prey, an over population of foxes is a 'pest' to the rural community and that is where hunting has it origins. In my opinion hunting is neither cruel or inhumane and that is why it has survived through out the ages.
Shock as stag eludes capture by jumping onto roof in Garristown! ADVERTISEMENT By Donncha MacRaghnaill A STAG is on the loose in rural Fingal after evading capture from a pack of hounds and mounted horses by legging it up the main street in Garristown and leaping off a shop roof! The Irish Red Deer was being pursued by up to 60 mounted members of the Ward Union Hunt after being set free near Palmerstown last Friday, January 13. Chairperson of the Ward Union Hunt, Oliver Russell said the de-antlered deer ’took a fairly circuitous route and came in the back of Adamstown’. ‘It arrived in Garristown near the football pitch and went down the main road,’ Mr Russell said. While Mr Russell was not there, he said he understood the deer then leaped over a wall and landed on a roof. ‘He jumped a wall but there was a drop in the ground the far side and he landed on a low roof,’ he said, saying it was probably at the back of Gough’s shop. ‘He jumped off and skedaddled away ending up beyond the graveyard,’ Mr Russell said. ‘It’s not unusual for a deer to end up on the road but it is unusual to end up on a roof but there is no talk of damage to the roof or to the deer, it was seen heading on,’ he said. Mr Russell emphasised that the hunt was licensed under the Wildlife Act and the stags remain unharmed, while an officer from the Department of the Environment is on hand to ensure that is the case. The hunters will now have to wait a month before giving chase to the deer again.
Blood Sports body slams deer chase ADVERTISEMENT By Donncha MacRaghnaill THE RECENT sighting of a deer running through the main street in Garristown has drawn protest from some quarters who believe that in this day and age, chasing animals is unacceptable. ‘The recent incident of a red deer fleeing through Garristown may have generated some interest and excitement in the area, but to those of us who campaign for an end to this hunt, it is a cause for concern,’ said Aideen Yourell, spokesperson for the Irish Council Against Blood Sports. She added that the National Council Against Blood Sports contended the Ward hunt was in fact illegal, as it was in contravention of the 1911 Protection of Animals Act. ‘Yet, controversially, it is licensed under the Wildlife Act, despite the fact that these deer are clearly not wild animals,’ she said. However, chairperson of the Ward Union Hunt, Oliver Russell, totally rejected this contention and said the legality had been checked at the highest levels. ‘The question was raised in the Dáil and sent to the Attorney General and the advice was very simply, the Act did not distinguish if a deer was wild or otherwise and it was proper that the Ward Union should be granted a licence,’ he said. He also utterly rejected any notion the deer were domesticated, stating they were ‘wild animals confined in a park with minimal human contact’. Ms Yourell claimed that last year, according to documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, two deer died following such hunts - one from an aneurysm, the other from fractured ribs. Mr Russell responded: ‘What she has likely ignored is the fact that because it was such an unusual situation, the Ward Union had run the post mortem and we volunteered the information to the Department.’ ‘It is most unusual for a deer to die,’ he explained.
franksm wrote: Typical Irish mentality I'm afraid - the British ban hunting in the UK, and we welcome them like a well-trodden doormat to come and hunt over here. Yeah, I'm sure the "tourist trade" is great and lots of Sterling gets spent, but hunting sickens me, and the fact that these people are coming over here to hunt our wildlife sickens me more. .
