Ireland is the last country in the UK where chasse à courre is practiced, but yesterday a bill was voted on in Parliament to ban this hunting.
Fortunately, the bill was rejected. 45 MPs voted against, while 38 voted in favour.
The bill, which was drafted under the leadership of John Blair, aims to reform the laws on hunting game with dogs in Northern Ireland to bring them into line with those of England, Scotland and Wales, where this practice has been illegal for almost 20 years.
Some MPs, such as William Irwin, were concerned about this freedom-robbing proposal that went far beyond hunting: “Virtually any dog owner in the country whose dog could at some point hunt a wild animal could indeed commit an offence if this ill-considered and ill-conceived legislation were to come into force”.
Others, such as Edwin Poots, said: “Personally, I don’t hunt, I don’t like hunting very much, but I can’t support this particular bill because I don’t think it’s well thought out. It may be well-intentioned, but not well thought out, and it would have harmful consequences if it came into effect.
Abroad, too, we see animal dogmas and environmental complacency trying to wreak havoc, but fortunately, as in France, there is a majority of people lucid enough to push them back……. For how long?
