The legislation banning carted stag hunting was narrowly passed in the Dail recently.
The only example of this hunt in the State takes place in Co. Meath. Its supporters claim that the ban would represent the virtual collapse of “rural life”.
Even allowing for the normal deployment of exaggerated argument on issues of controversial legislation, this one is so far fetched as to scarcely merit a reasoned response.
For a start, the idea that taking a domesticated animal from its enclosure, turning it loose in unfamiliar countryside and then subjecting it to the terrifying ordeal of being chased by dozens of baying hounds represents “rural life” is totally false. Equally so to argue that there is something noble or natural here, resonating from more primeval times when our ancestors wrestled with nature for survival.
In fact, the contrived struggle here is most unnatural. The stag’s antlers are sawn off, thus depriving it of its main mechanism of defence against attack. This is to tilt the contest in favour of the chasing hounds and the human handlers who otherwise might be hurt as the animal naturally resists being bitten and resists the attempts of its tormentors to capture it for another outing in the future.
The stags used by the Ward Hunt are not wild animals, they are in fact as domesticated as a herd of cattle. Subjecting them to the “hunt” is not much different to setting the hounds on a young heifer or bullock. In normal farming, animals like sheep and cattle are shepherded for milking or husbandry by collie dogs. Even then the careful farmer will take great care that the animals are not unduly worried by the dogs. Comparing this, as has been done, to setting a pack of hounds on a single animal and chasing it for hours is nonsense.
The opposition of the Labour Party to the legislation banning the carted stag hunt is utterly cynical and opportunist. Before this legislation emerged Labour was keen to present itself as an opponent of this hunt, evidenced by the signatures of some of its leading members. To justify its U-turn, and vote against, by describing this as “trophy legislation” by the Green Party is transparently cynical. Of course the Green Party is posturing as it tries to salvage some scintilla of credibility after three years of craven capitulation to the dictats of right wing economics and hammering the living standards and services of ordinary people.
However, a vote on legislation should be decided on the issues dealt with and on the way they are dealt with. In this case, the Labour Party will be voting against a piece of legislation that would end the organised cruelty that the stag hunt represents.
The Labour Deputy for Longford / Westmeath, Willie Penrose, is quoted as saying, “I support rural Ireland. I don’t support the Wildlife Bill. .. I’m a rural person with rural views.” It is quite staggering to suggest that to be a “rural person” or to support “rural life”, a person has to be in favour of terrorising a tamed animal for hours around the fields of Co. Meath.
That this hunt does amount to terror for the stag is clearly borne out by a report carried out in 1997 for the Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht by a Veterinary Inspector, KWS Kane. In the introduction, Mr. Kane sets out his “qualifications”. “Although I had no prior experience of, nor connection with, stag or fox hunting, I have done a considerable amount of wild fowling and some big game shooting and so cannot be accused of any particular antipathy towards stag hunting.” Having watched several hunts, he gives his conclusions. Among these are that the stag “appears, before the hunt starts, to be distressed”, that he is “terrified of the hounds” and “terrified by people and motor vehicles during the hunt’ and distressed and exhausted towards the end of hunts”. Finally he concludes, “Domesticated red deer are obviously completely unfit for a prolonged chase by hounds.”
Concern has been expressed that a hundred or so jobs depend on the Ward Hunt and could be lost. Supporters of the legislation should not shrug their shoulders at this prospect. Every worker’s job must be considered as precious especially in current circumstances of disastrous unemployment levels. However, it should not be beyond the capabilities of this “micro industry” to adapt and develop other alternatives that does not involve cruelty to maintain employment. It remains to be seen if the wealthy patrons of the Ward Hunt are serious on this point.
Any society which claims to have some compassion will not tolerate unnecessary cruelty to animals and such an approach is not negated by the fact that we are largely a meat eating population. I believe most people will welcome the end of carted stag hunting.
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