Hunting resumes
Dear Editor.
The hunting season is upon us, and ‘the pursuit of the uneatable by the unspeakable’ as Oscar Wilde called this activity, has returned to our countryside. While I welcome the resumption of sports and recreations following the Covid lockdown, I feel sick to the stomach at the prospect of this pastime making a comeback.
I have just read a report on some recent Irish hunts in an equestrian magazine and I notice that blood sport apologists still find it necessary to resort to evasion and carefully chosen euphemisms when writing about foxhunting.
The report refers to a twenty minute chase through County Laois that culminated in a fox running onto a farm in search of refuge. It enthused about the suitability of the terrain, the lovely hedges and the crisp winter air etc. But the fate of the fox doesn’t merit a mention.
The report recounts another hunt in which the fox, following a long chase, was ‘ marked to ground’. No mention of the animal suffering in any way, but this phrase normally refers to when a fox is driven into a drain or den from which it is then dug out. And of course the report alludes to the wonderful day had by all and the festivities afterwards in the pubs and hotels.
We need to get behind the picture postcard image of foxhunting that depicts wizened riders attired in red jackets and jodhpurs setting off from a town square, led by happy tail-wagging hounds, while in the background snow falls wispily from whitened rooftops.
A hunt is not sporting in that it pits up to seventy hounds against one fox, and the aim is to kill the hunted animal - not quickly as in pest-control but in a long drawn-out, choreographed chase that must give pleasure to the riders and hunt followers.
You won’t ever see the result of a hunt depicted on postcards or table mats: An animal that has dropped down from exhaustion having the skin ripped from its bones; or a terrified fox that has gone to earth being dragged to the surface with the aid of spades and terriers.
Later this month, a Bill to ban fox hunting will come before the Northern Ireland Assembly. The Dail should also be debating the issue.
It’s time to end this organised animal cruelty masquerading as sport.
Thanking you, John Fitzgerald, Lower Coyne Street, Callan, Co. Kilkenny.