Farmer anger after fox-hunting hounds killed by train

Farmer anger after fox-hunting hounds killed by train
Irish Independent, 13 January 2014

FARMERS against fox hunting have expressed “extreme concern” over a pack of hounds wandering onto a railway track during a hunt at the weekend where several dogs were killed by a passing train.

The farmers’ group said it saw the incident as “yet further evidence of the havoc wrought by fox hunts” which it described as “an absolute menace to farmers and their livelihoods”.

Iarnrod Eireann has confirmed that the 14.50 train from Waterford to Dublin’s Heuston station hit a pack of hounds on the track at Mullinavat, Co Kilkenny, just after 3pm on Saturday.

A spokeswoman said the rail company had not been contacted prior to the fox hunt. The train ploughed into the pack of dogs killing a number of them.

DANGEROUS

She said if they had been contacted they could have given the train timetable for the area but she also stressed that it was “very dangerous for people or animals to be on the track with trains passing at high speed”.

In most areas the track was protected by fences or hedges and to be on the track was trespassing, she added.

Chairman of the Kilkenny foxhounds, Ned Morris, said that he was away on Saturday and “only came back, so I don’t know how many dogs were killed”.

He said that the group would normally contact Iarnrod Eireann prior to hunting. The company would be good about “slowing down trains and that kind of thing” when hunts were being held, he said.

“Dogs getting killed would be a kind of freak thing now,” he added.

The Association of Hunt Saboteurs disagreed and condemned the failure of the hunters to control the pack of hounds and protect their welfare.

“The death of hounds while hunting is not an isolated incident. Accidents in the past have involved road accidents, other train accidents and deaths of other animals caused by hounds out of control,” said a spokesman.

The Farmers Against Fox-hunting and Trespass group said it believed hunting should be banned.

“Our main objection is the damage they cause to farm property.

“They ride through fields of crops, ripping them up and scattering or killing livestock, knocking fencing and, as frequently happens, killing family pets,” the group said.

Clodagh Sheehy

Daily Mail: FAFT has many a tale to tell

Farmers Against Foxhunting and Trespass mentioned in Irish Daily Mail Letters to the Editor page…

Wake up to cruelty
Irish Daily Mail
6th Jan 2014
(Letters to the Editor Page)

We who are involved in animal welfare/rescue are up just as early as the so called ‘good fellows’ who take their perverted pleasure from persecuting and terrorising innocent animals in their habitats.

We rescuers are up early picking up the pieces from this so-called sport.

Apart from the foxes and all the other wildlife disturbed during these hunts, the hounds and the horses are often ill-treated by many of these great ‘custodians of the countryside’.

How many hunt kennels would allow the general public/animal welfare people in to see what really goes on there, the puppies that are culled at birth for being the wrong colour, size, shape, etc.

The old hounds that can’t keep up with the pack, old at three to four years of age. Where do they end up?

And the horses injured out hunting, who takes care of them when they are no longer able to do the job required of them, in some cases carrying overweight men and women over long distances and over rough terrain?

And what about the numerous domestic pets and livestock that are chased, mauled and killed by blood-thirsty hounds, bred to do just that?

The group Farmers Against Foxhunting and Trespass have many a convincing tale to tell – give them a chance to tell the real truth about this so-called benign pastime.

What puzzles me the most is the farmers who allow these hunts to cross their land, destroying fences and walls in the process.

And the Department of Agriculture who allow horses and hounds traverse one farm to another, bringing disease and the potential for the snail that transports the Liver Fluke disease from farm animal to farm animal, not to mention other diseases.

Hundreds of thousands of euro are spent each year by farmers on the treatment/prevention of Liver Fluke and many other diseases, it just doesn’t make sense.

Blood sports should be banned and are in every civilised country.

We are supposed to be the superior being, let us show that we are. Just because something is legal does not mean it is right.

Let 2014 be the year we finally wake up to the realities of animal cruelty and what it means to us as a society.

Fiona Gammell