JOHN FITZGERALD,
Sir, - Your front-page picture of the Ward Union hunt setting off for an afternoon's sport was colourful and pretty. Alas, it was also misleading. It gave the impression that stag-hunting is a benign rustic pursue, fun for all the family.
There is another side to this seemingly innocuous galloping through the Irish countryside, one that is never depicted on Christmas cards, table-mats, or curtain designs. That is the sight of a majestic stag being hounded, with baying dogs and laughing hunters trailing behind. And the sickening spectacle of a creature celebrated on our soon-to-be defunct pound coin struggling to free itself from a ditch laced with barbed wire.
This is a common feature of stag-hunting, as anyone who has observed it regularly will confirm. It is the only field sport that has no conservation aspect whatsoever. The sole purpose of the exercise is to make captive wild deer run for hours across country until their lungs give out and, panting, bleeding and mutilated, they fall down from exhaustion.
The animals are hunted repeatedly. When captured, they are forced to run again by the sportspeople who enjoy their pain. The absence of a kill at the end of the chase has its advantages, though for the stag the future consists only of a living hell.
Ireland is the only country in Europe that still permits stag-hunting. Attempts by the Ward Union Hunt to wrap the green flag round this relic of Middle England are pathetic. - Yours, etc.,
JOHN FITZGERALD,
Lower Coyne Street,
Callan,
Co Kilkenny.