By Drew Frayne
Socialist Party TD Ruth Coppinger’s bill on banning fox hunting has passed the first stage and will now be taken in “private members time” where a vote will take place to pass it into law or not. With fox hunting banned in England, Scotland and Wales, Ireland is an outlier.
Even though colonial British powers introduced this barbaric “culture” of cruelty, Sinn Féin, alongside right-wing independent TDs, voted against the introduction of the fox hunting bill on Wednesday, 28 May.
Unprecedented opposition by TDs
Their opposition to the bill at this stage is almost unprecedented. Bills are virtually never opposed at the first stage. Even Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil voted in favour of introducing the bill, in a longstanding practice of allowing debate on opposition bills by allowing them to pass first stage.
A recent Red C poll found that 77% of the population want fox hunting banned. The poll revealed that this is not an urban versus rural issue, as some claim. 74% of people in rural areas also agree with the ban. Part of the rural opposition comes from farmers themselves who have hunts going over their lands without permission. In some cases causing serious damage to property. Country pursuits that could replace fox hunting would include drag hunting, for example.
The bill aims to amend the Animal Health and Welfare Act 2013, which has an exemption for hunting in Section 12 to include fox hunting as an illegal, unlawful activity. It also brings in trail hunting, snaring and the trapping of foxes, which have proven to be loopholes in the UK.
The pressure on TDs around this issue has deepened, with many shocked that SF voted against it, despite election promises to move against animal cruelty. Bloodsports are part of a colonial past that ensure a dehumanising culture of cruelty is engendered in society. Any move to remove this relic of barbarity from Irish culture is of benefit to all.
