Madam, - A shocking report in your edition of December 31st tells how a stag being hounded by the Ward Union hunt club in Co Meath, was forced to swim across the bitterly cold Boyne river to escape its tormentors. We can only imagine the stress and terror endured by this defenceless animal, used as a live lure to provide "sport" and "entertainment" for the hunt.
This latest incident is just one in a ongoing catalogue of cruelty inflicted on these tame deer, which are subjected to this barbarism twice weekly, compliments of a licence from the Minister for the Environment.
Reports obtained by the Irish Council Against Blood Sports under the Freedom of Information Act have revealed incidents of deer dying of aneurisms due to the stress of the chase; a deer choked on capture; a deer drowned in a quarry; a deer sustaining fractured ribs and dying after attempting to jump a high wall; a deer hanging by its front leg on barbed wire; a deer clearly exhausted with its tongue hanging out; and lameness in deer following hunts.
And we have the harrowing video evidence of a terrified deer cornered by hounds in a field, falling against a farm gate, and then being violently wrestled to the ground by supporters of the hunt.
ICABS has always contended that this hunt is illegal, and this view is supported by Profs William Binchy and Clive Symmons of Trinity School of Law in a legal opinion, published earlier this year, which concludes that the Ward Union hunt is "illegal" under the 1911 Protection of Animals Act, and that it should not be licensed under the 1976 Wildlife Act.
It is time to bring this horrendous cruelty to an end, and we call on Minister John Gormley to act immediately and rescind the Ward Union's licence. - Yours, etc,