Hunt supporter conviction for grievous bodily harm

On the morning of this attack John O’Reilly came down this side road with his digger and started to knock a gap in the Daniels’ road side ditch. Having dug out the length of a gateway or more he then left, leaving the Daniels field open to their animals trespassing on the public road.

Aghast, at this unexpected damage to their ditch, Norman and Hubert Daniels went down the side road and were in the process of repairing the damage when John O’Reilly attacked them. This is to be seen on the video. They were lured out of their farm onto the roadside for this unprovoked assault which left Norman with a fractured wrist and he subsequently had a heart attack.

John O’Reilly is a violent supporter of the Kilkenny Hunt with a previous conviction for violent assault and he was fined 2250 euro, for this section 3 conviction for grievous bodily harm. Outside the court he was surrounded and supported by prominent members of the Kilkenny Hunt, for all to see. This assault is only one of a long list of intimidation, bullying and damage to their persons and their farming by the Kilkenny Hunt and their supporters, for which the Daniels have never been paid. Who was it that destroyed a field of silage with a harrow and stole their gates last Summer? Mr nobody.

The government’s silence in this regard is alarming and they and the law are turning a blind eye when it comes to farmers. Further more, quite a lot of Solicitors, Barristers, Gardai and some Judges openly support this kind of criminal activity. Because these men, the Daniels are farmers, who cares? They were at law with the Devil, and the court in Hell, a waste of time and money. The men of 1916 died in vain.

The Irish Farmers Organisation should be taking this case on behalf of two of their members and should be actively defending those men in Court. But because the IFA and the Farmers Journal have been infiltrated in the last number of years by high profile fox hunting people, whose aim is to perpetuate the Freebee, Hunt, with the Farmers investment at the Farmers expenses. Even the new IFA help line Solicitor James Stains runs with and defended the Kilkenny Hunt even in court, against two IFA members, the Daniels, what a laugh. The IFA’s own rules are not being operated. To highlight this, F A F T with the Daniels picketed the Farm Centre last April 15 2015 seeking the expulsion of all this gang .A press statement was issued, the Press took photos and interviews, but nothing appeared in the papers ,why? Is this gang about to be shafted from IFA?

The power struggle is now on, the new President needs to be a strong and determined man. IFA’s rules state that no body is allowed to enter onto a farm unless they have the farmers permission and clearly in this case, the Hunt are trespassers doing criminal damage. Is nobody going to say stop?

But in the face of this Redcoat Militia, we croppies will not lie down. Farmers Unite. Shut these gurriers out of your land.

Philip P. Lynch
Chairman FAFT

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

Irish farming land off-limits to hunting groups

At a recent meeting of Farmers Against Fox Hunting and Trespass, a motion was passed unanimously declaring that ALL THE COMMERCIAL FARMING LANDS OF IRELAND SHOULD BE OFF LIMITS TO ALL HUNTING GROUPS WITH DOGS, WHETHER ON HORSEBACK OR ON FOOT.

Access to farmland will only be by Written and Signed Permission from the Farmer/Land Owner. This measure is seen as necessary because almost all foxhunts erroneously claim to have permission to hunt on Farmland despite not having sought the farmer’s permission. The IFA, ICMSA and ICSA state that nobody has a right to enter farmland without the owners’ permission.

Because of the NON payment for damage caused by foxhunts to farms, crops and livestock running into hundreds of thousands of Euro in all twenty-six counties, most farmers will no longer grant permission to Hunts to enter their lands at all.

The 30,000 Euro owed to a Westmeath farmer by the Hunts for the loss of his Pedigree Herd of Sheep, has still not been paid to the man.

Incredibly, the 30,500 Euro that was awarded in Kilkenny Circuit Court last year for Criminal behaviour by the Kilkenny Hunt has still not been paid to the Daniel brothers of Tullaroan Kilkenny.

On top of this despicable behaviour, hunt hounds are routinely killing farm family pets, harmless little cats or dogs that happened to show themselves when the Yahoos arrive with horns blowing and whips at the ready. The animals are savaged in front of crying children and helpless adults as the hounds run amok in a frenzy.

We ask: Is there no Justice for Farmers victimised by foxhunts? This kind of Wanton Vandalism has to stop.

Hence, the decision taken by members of Farmers Against Foxhunting that in Future, ALL Hunt clubs will have to carry Written and Signed Permission from the Farmer on whose land the are found.

NO PERMISSION MEANS JUST THAT… NO ADMISSION TO THE FARM BY FOXHUNTS. Our members will resist with all the legal means at our disposal any and all attempts by hunts to encroach on farm property.

WE CROPPIES WILL NOT LIE DOWN!

Fines for owner of hunting dogs that worried livestock

FAFT Letter in The Avondhu

Hunt trespass scandal
The Avondhu, 9 April 2013

Irish agriculture is reeling under the impact of events and activities that undermine its morale and viability. We have had the scandal of processors inserting questionable additives and horsemeat into burgers that ended up in Irish supermarkets.

This at a time so many horses in the country are neglected or abandoned, the often emaciated creatures having to be rescued from the direst conditions by animal rescue groups, with no ID Tags to trace the owners. The huge bill for their disposal is passed on to the taxpayer. Where is the justice in this?

One wonders what use are all the rules and regulations imposed on the Irish farmer relating to Safe Food, the keeping of which is a condition for CAP payments. Farmers have had some good news too: Recently two Kilkenny farmers, after years of being bullied by foxhunters, were awarded Eur30,500 in damages against a hunt official in Kilkenny Circuit Court. Norman and Hubert Daniels of Tullaroan, County Kilkenny have the gratitude of their neighbours, and commercial farmers nationwide. They have to be admired for their courage and determination, as they driven to desperation owing to the constant verbal abuse and damage to their farm property over the years. Had they not videotaped the hunt activities, they might never have achieved justice.

Hunts have caused extensive damage to farms nationwide, and the judiciary has not proven to be the farmers’ friend in many instances. The late judge, Frank Roe for example, dismissed numerous claims made by farmers for hunt-related damage. Another judge who happened to ride with a hunt himself dismissed a claim for the total destruction of a pedigree herd of Suffolk sheep. The damage cost the farmer in question £30,000. To this day he has not been compensated for his loss. The scandal and injustice of hunt trespass has to be face up to once and for all.

Breaking and entering and vandalising a person’s property is, in law, a criminal offence, perpetrated by criminals. The fact that they wear fancy costumes does not alter this legal reality. Let’s stamp out hunt-related crime. Hundreds of claims by farmers for damage caused by hunts are outstanding and there is no sign of the hunts paying up. Can TDs and senators be so deaf or blind as not to realise the importance of banning this destructive and pointless cruelty to farmers? They fail to legislate against foxhunting while horses, packs of hounds, and hunt followers (some riding quads) are rampaging across the countryside, wreaking havoc on legitimate farm enterprises as they knock fences, scatter livestock, churn up fields of crops and destroy productive farmland in the middle of winter?

Fox hunting displays a callous disregard for binding EU requirements and good farming practice. It is rightly banned in the UK, a country that relies far less on agriculture than we do. Dail Eireann must act to banish these pests from rural Ireland. True, there are some farmers who join hunts, but without exception these people will not damage their own land but they will ride roughshod over someone else’s. If the Tally-ho brigade were to switch to drag hunting they could lay false trails for the hounds to follow, thus avoiding trespass and damage to farms. They could make that change at any time. Unfortunately they prefer what they call “that essential element of unpredictability” as one hunt master described it. An outright ban therefore will be required to end this rural vandalism.

Philip P Lynch, Chairman,
Farmers Against Foxhunting and Trespass,
Gleann an Ri, Mallardstown, Callan, Co Kilkenny.

Horses, hunters and farmers

Irish agriculture is reeling under the impact of events and activities that undermine its morale and viability. We have had the scandal of processors inserting questionable additives and horse meat into burgers that ended up in Irish supermarkets. This at a time so many horses in the country are neglected or abandoned, the often emaciated creatures having to be rescued from the direst conditions by Animal Rescue groups, with no ID Tags to trace the owners .The huge bill for their disposal  is passed on to the Taxpayer.

Where is the justice in this? One wonders what use are all the rules and regulations imposed on the Irish farmer relating to Safe Food, the keeping of which is a condition for CAP payments.

Farmers have had some good news too: Recently two Kilkenny farmers, after years of being bullied by foxhunters, were awarded 30,500 Euro in damages against a hunt official in Kilkenny Circuit Court. Norman and Hubert Daniels of Tullaroan, County Kilkenny have the gratitude of their neighbors,  and commercial farmers nationwide  .They have to be admired for their courage and determination, as they driven to desperation owing to the constant verbal abuse and damage to their farm property over the years . Had they not videotaped the hunt activities, they might never have achieved justice.

Hunts have caused extensive damage to farms nationwide, and the judiciary has not proven to be the famer’s friend in many instances. The late Judge Frank Roe for example dismissed numerous claims made by farmers for hunt-related damage. Another judge who happened to ride with hunt himself dismissed a claim for the total destruction of a pedigree herd of Suffolk sheep. The damage cost the farmer in question £ 30,000. To this day he has not been compensated for his loss

The scandal and injustice of hunt trespass has to be face up to once and for all. Breaking and entering and vandalizing a person’s property is in law a criminal offence, perpetrated by criminals. The fact that they wear fancy costumes does not alter this legal reality.

Let’s stamp out hunt-related crime. Hundreds of claims by farmers for damage caused by hunts are outstanding and there is no sign of the hunts paying up.

Can TDs and Senators be so deaf or blind as not to realize the importance of banning this destructive and pointless cruelty to farmers?  They fail to legislate against foxhunting while horses, packs of hounds, and hunt followers (some riding quads) are rampaging across the countryside, wreaking havoc on legitimate farm enterprises as they knock fences, scatter livestock, churn up fields of crops, and destroy productive farmland in the middle of winter?

Fox Hunting displays a callous disregard for binding EU requirements and good farming practice. It is rightly banned in the UK, a country that relies far less on agriculture than we do. Dail Eireann must act to banish these pests from rural Ireland.

True, there are some farmers who join hunts, but without exception these people will not damage their own land other farm property their own land…they will ride roughshod over someone else’s.

If the Tally-ho brigade were to switch to drag hunting they could lay false trails for the hounds to follow, thus avoiding trespass and damage to farms. They could make that change at any time. Unfortunately they prefer what they call “that essential element of unpredictability” as one hunt master described it. An outright ban therefore will be required to end this rural vandalism.

Philip P Lynch
Chairman, Farmers Against Foxhunt and Trespass

FAFT welcomes court case outcome

Farmers against Fox Hunting and Trespass (FAFT) welcomes the outcome of the defamation case brought by two County Kilkenny farmers against a senior hunt official. On February 4^th, Hubert and Norman Daniels were awarded in excess of 30,000 Euro against Mr. Edward Norris of the Kilkenny Hunt in Kilkenny Circuit.

Aside from the defamation issue, we note that Norman and Hubert Daniels, the farmers concerned, had been videotaping hunt activity for years in an attempt to deter incursion by hunts on their land.

FAFT would make the point that many other farmers around the country have similar concerns, and indeed have had extremely negative experiences involving foxhunts. Extensive damage is caused every year by hunts trespassing on land and wreaking havoc in their pursuit of foxes. We believe that foxhunting is the scourge of modern agriculture.

Farming is a business and a farmer’s land is his “workshop”. The arrival onto his land of scores of horses, hounds and hunt followers to cause mayhem and destruction is the exact equivalent of having a gang of vandals break into a factory and running riot…breaking machines and furniture, and frightening the living daylights out of the workers. Such an incursion would not be tolerated, yet farmers nationwide have to contend with the ever present threat of hunt invasion and vandalism.

Farmers have to observe certain rules of good farming practise. There are books to be kept and records of animals with correct dates, numbers, and tags. Every farmer is required not to spread slurry at certain times of year. He cannot leave land exposed in winter- fallow or poached. He has to keep his hedges stock proof. He has to avail of the latest electric fencing and numerous other expensive modern aids to prevent animals from straying onto roads that are busier now than at any time in history. 

These requirements are enshrined in law, and any breach on the farmer’s part can result in severe penalties, including withdrawal or drastic reduction of monetary payments, impacting drastically on his income and livelihood, or, in extreme cases, forcing him out of farming altogether. 

This is the background to the plight of the two farmers who found themselves in court in the defamation suit against the Kilkenny Hunt official. Their refusal to allow hunts on their lands has to be seen in the light of those factors.  Like other farmers, they have to keep their fences stock proof, their animals safe; their land in proper condition to give early grass, and they must have sufficient winter fodder, to keep their animals well fed and bedded for winter. 

How can hunts be allowed then to undermine or even destroy attempts by farmers to meet all these requirements and to comply with the various EU and IFA rules? 

IFA rules state that hunts must seek permission before passing over their lands and cannot encroach on any property without such permission.  In practise, however, hunts routinely flout these rules, damaging fences, tearing up fields of valuable crops, traumatising livestock and scattering herds of sheep and cattle in all directions. When challenged by farmers about this rural vandalism, the hunters haughtily laugh off the protests and look down their noses at the victimised landowners as if nothing had happened.  FAFT sees this behaviour not just in terms of trespass and damage caused: We also regard it as a form of bullying. We assert the right of all farmers to stand up to the foxhunts, to the clear and present danger they pose to the interests and incomes of those who struggle to make a living off the land.

We have enough challenges facing us without the hunt “cavalry” visiting mayhem on our lives and legitimate enterprises. We urge Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney to include a total ban on foxhunting in the Animal Health and Welfare Bill that is currently proceeding through the Oireachtas. Drag hunting could replace it, enabling an artificial scent to be laid so as to avoid farmland and all lands declared off limits to hunting.

Philip P Lynch
Chairman, Farmers against Foxhunting and Trespass
Tel: 056-77 25 309

 

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Farmers against foxhunting speak out

Metro Eireann, February 15, 2012

In recent weeks articles have appeared in a number of newspapers and magazines that seem to glorify foxhunting, an activity that involves people riding roughshod over the rights and livelihoods of farmers. Indeed, I believe that foxhunts did not have solicitors and judges riding with them, it’s in jail where a lot of hunters would end up.

One farmer I know in Co Westmeath has still not been paid for the loss of his pedigree herd of sheep, valued at over €30,000, that were destroyed after the trespassing of the local hunt on his land. He’s just one of many farmers throughout this country – the real countryside alliance – with bills for damage incurred by mounted foxhunts to various degrees, almost none of which have been paid.
The hated absentee landlords were run out of this country years ago, and we farmers do not want their lackeys back. We do not want them stomping in their jodhpurs and jackboots on the people of the countryside, like the mothers forced to make 10-mile detours to get their children to and from school when the arrogant hunt yeomanry are on the road.
Mounted foxhunts are the curse of the countryside. In 2012 almost all farmers are commercial, with high input costs, and are dependant for their livelihoods on a high return from their crops, livestock, milk, beef and lamb. No farmer wants his work on his important fences destroyed and vandalised. No farmer wants his livestock terrorised even in sheds and his crops and early grass trampled into the ground. The great Irish horse industry, too, can do without hunts next nor near their stud farms exciting their valuable horses.
Why are such hunts even necessary? Equestrian centres offering all kinds of horsey excitement and drag hunting are common throughout Ireland today. Are the foxhunts too poor or too mean to join them? Or is it that they so desperately need the thrill of riding over the rights of farmers?
We also ask hunts to quit provoking or verbally abusing us farmers. I would remind them that the farmer holds a vermin licence that allows him to shoot unleashed dogs that he sees as a threat to his livestock. This has already happened in Kilkenny, Waterford, and Limerick. Let me say in all sincerity that we farmers do not want to shoot anyone’s dog, but we cannot allow our animals to suffer because of irresponsible owners. People have a duty to keep their dogs under control.
We appeal to the Government to do us all a favour and ban fox hunting in Ireland, as has been done the UK. At present the agricultural sector is saving this country. In return we deserve to be given a hand, not a kick.
And to those arrogant, irresponsible, dangerous and often foul-mouthed foxhunting people, we say: Stay off our land! We croppies will not lie down.

Philip P Lynch, chairman,
Farmers Against Foxhunting and Trespass
Mallardstown, Callan, Co Kilkenny

http://metroeireann.com/article/farmers-against-foxhunting-speak,3161