Sir, - At the Tullamore Agricultural Show recently, the ICMSA president, Frank Allen, declared that it was "a right and choice of people" to participate in foxhunting and that "people's rights" were "also at stake when it came to wildlife protection".
No doubt, when cruel blood sports such as bull-baiting, dog-fighting and cockfighting were facing abolition, this same clarion call went up under the guise of protecting some section or other's interests and/or lifestyle. Nowadays people would express amazement that there was strong resistance to the abolition of slavery, and putting small boys up chimneys, but then as now it was a case of powerful greedy interests versus the powerless in society.
So it is with the wanton abuse of Ireland's vulnerable and voiceless wildlife - the foxes, stags and hares which Mr Allen believes people have a right to hound for "sport". He sees this "right" as one which "rural people" must defend. Yet not all rural folk support the hunting of wild animals with dogs, and indeed the majority abhor it. The most recent survey undertaken on live hare coursing, for example (Sunday Independent, February 1998) showed that 77 per cent of rural dwellers opposed it.
In Britain, hunting wild animals with dogs faces almost certain abolition, a fact acknowledged by Mr Allen. This has come about because the vast majority in that jurisdiction is opposed to cruelty to animals. Irish people, both rural and urban, are no less compassionate than their British counterparts and want to see the abuse of wildlife for "sport" abolished. So, surely it is the responsibility of our legislators to respect the wishes of the vast majority and abolish these last vestiges of ancient Roman blood sports as we approach the new millennium. - Yours, etc.,
Aideen Yourell, Austin Friars Street, Mullingar, Co Westmeath