Huge Majority Backs Ban on Hunting With Dogs in Northern Ireland
Seventy-eight per cent of respondents to a public consultation in Northern Ireland voted in favour of a ban on hunting wild mammals with dogs.
More than 18,000 people – including PETA supporters – responded to the survey, making it one of the most comprehensive private member’s bill consultations in Northern Irish history. A poll carried out by Survation in 2019 produced similar results – members of the public called for the hunting of deer (84%), foxes (76%), hares (76%), and rabbits (75%) with dogs to be made illegal.
The message is clear: an overwhelming majority of the public doesn’t support this blood sport and wants to see it relegated to the history books.
Hunting with dogs has been illegal in England, Scotland, and Wales for 15 years – it’s time for Northern Ireland to follow suit.
Why This Ban Should Be Supported
Let’s put politics aside for a moment to remind ourselves of what we’re actually talking about, because it doesn’t get much crueller than setting a pack of hounds loose on a terrified fox, rabbit, deer, hare, or any other animal and watching as they’re ripped to shreds. Blood sports of any kind have no place in the UK.
League Against Cruel Sports
From the terrifying chase that can cause them to rupture organs when fleeing the hounds to the moment they’re surrounded, petrified and exhausted, and then shot or ripped apart by dogs, every minute of these hunts involves cruelty to animals – and they must end. Animals who are not killed outright and manage to escape the hounds are often left to die slowly and in agony from blood loss or infection. Mothers who are killed may leave orphaned young to starve to death or be killed by predators.
In today’s society, hunting wild animals serves no purpose other than to provide a tiny minority with twisted amusement at the expense of animals’ lives.
What’s Next?
A private member’s bill is set to be introduced that will seek to push for a ban on hunting wild mammals with dogs. The goal is to see robust legislation which ends the blood sport across Northern Ireland.
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