Tim Bonner: Why the hunting ban is a rural wrong

Politicians seem to have an aversion to lessons of history, which is especially strange given how often they are repeated. Whilst it is not quite as well-known an example as the futility of invading Russia, the very obvious failures of the hunting ban in England and Wales should be a clear lesson for those considering a similar approach elsewhere. Nor can anyone contemplating such a move plead ignorance. The Alliance put the likely consequences of banning hunting on the record when the law was being debated 20 years ago and, as a new book ‘Rural Wrongs’ has detailed, our warnings were more than justified.

‘Rural Wrongs’, written by Charlie Pye-Smith with the assistance of our animal welfare consultant, Jim Barrington, details how instead of making life better for quarry species like the fox, brown hare and red deer, the hunting ban has achieved the exact opposite. Those species are now often being killed in greater numbers by methods which are no more humane. There is more suffering, not less.

This is particularly relevant to Northern Ireland where traditional hunting remains legal. Two years ago we fought off an attempt by an Alliance MLA, John Blair, to ban hunting with dogs, but he has committed to bringing back similar legislation and has told the Northern Ireland hunting associations that when the Northern Ireland Assembly eventually returns he will introduce his Bill at the first opportunity.

Mr Blair will undoubtedly have taken note of the valid criticisms of his previous Bill and attempted to address those, but what he cannot do with any level of conviction is to explain why he thinks that banning hunting in Northern Ireland would improve wild mammal welfare, when it has worsened it elsewhere. Rather than learning the lessons of history he seems wedded to the definition of insanity: “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”.

This will, of course, not stop Mr Blair or his backers in the animal rights movement. Their interest in animal welfare is at most marginal, and their real focus is on making a moral judgment about activities and people that they do not like.

The first opportunity Mr Blair will have to lodge his Bill would be as soon as a Speaker is elected. He will have to explain why, given the current monumental challenges facing Northern Ireland’s public services and the huge hole in public finances, his Bill should be allowed to move forward. However, political support for hunting at Stormont is finely balanced and others are calling for legislation as well. Many, but not all Unionist members are opposed to a ban, and Sinn Fein has thus far held that position too. Its recent party conference (Ard Fheis) passed a motion which rejected an outright ban on “traditional rural occupations such as hunting and hare coursing” as that would drive these practices underground. It did, however, say that they should be strongly regulated and that alternatives such as drag hunting and lure coursing should be promoted and incentivised. It also called for government departments to establish a commission of experts to examine and recommend appropriate regulations.

Given that position, which applies both North and South of the border, it looks likely that there will be legislation of some sort in Northern Ireland in the coming years. We can only ensure that the lessons so clearly laid out in ‘Rural Wrongs’ are heard by every politician in Ireland and that, if ‘regulations’ do become inevitable, they protect the ability of hunts to manage wild mammal populations using the method that has proved so successful over so many decades.