Ward Union Hunt's campaign charade

Dear sir - Meath's staghunting with hounds community have declared war. With the banning of their cruel activity on the political agenda they have blown the horn to rally the troops to fight this action. If it was not so serious it would be laughable. Where can Ireland's hunting community locate a solid defence for an activity that has been shown to be cruel, inhumane and totally unnecessary for the protection and survival of our deer population. Mass rallies are being planned and political lobbying campaigns are being kick-started by these rural deer chasers. The intention is to create a charade that hunting with hounds is a vital element of our society and it should not be consigned to history's skip. Given that the majority of Irish people find hunting with hounds cruel it will be interesting to see this campaign unfolds. For those more used to dishing out animal abuse in the depths of the Irish countryside away from prying eyes trying to justify their actions in the glare of public and media forums will be like a visual and audio bloodsport as they squirm on truth's harpoon. Hunting spokespersons will be pouring out spurious claims about hunting while feeding to the general public a defence of animal abuse in a bolus of pap. No doubt personal attacks will be unleashed against those who are trying to defend our wildlife from these rural thugs. Of course we can be spared this pantomime if the Irish hunting community accept that hunting with hounds is an activity that does not have any long-term prospects. It would save a lot of time and media space if hunters accepted their fate and started the process of converting live hunting packs to drag hunting packs across all the various disciplines of hunting with hounds. The ban on staghunting with hounds will come to pass and in its wake will be a ban on all forms of live hunting with hounds. That is the reality of the situation. Those who follow horn and hound have a choice; they can remain at the default setting of the terminally stupid, violent and committed to defending animal cruelty or they can accept what is coming down the political track and make the voluntary switch to draghunting. But based on what goes on in the Irish hunting field we can only assume that it is not in the nature of animal abusers to elevate themselves above the subculture they currently embrace. Yours, John Tierney, Campaigns Director, Association of Hunt Saboteurs, PO Box 4734, Dublin 1.