Stormont to debate hunting with dogs

The Northern Ireland Assembly will today debate a private members bill seeking to outlaw hunting with dogs in Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland is currently the only part of the United Kingdom without a ban on hunting with dogs.   Fox hunting, deer hunting and hare hunting remains legal in Northern Ireland.

Hunting wild mammals with dogs in England and Wales was prohibited under the 2004 Hunting Act.  Whilst hunting with dogs was banned in Scotland under the Wild Mammals Protection (Scotland) Act in 2002.

Today’s debate at Stormont follows a public consultation in Northern Ireland on hunting with dogs.  The Consultation received 18,000 responses, the largest number for any previous such consultation.  Some four fifths of responses supported the introduction of a fox hunting ban in Northern Ireland.

The Bill is being introduced by the Alliance Party MLA for South Antrim, John Blair.  Mr Blair previously made the headlines for being the first openly gay MLA to be elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2018.

Ahead of the introduction of his bill, John Blair MLA has said, “A blood support has no place in a civilised society and it should be confined to history where it belongs”.

Opponents of today’s bill have suggeted that it could criminalise dog walkers whose dogs make end up chasing rabbits.  However supporters of the bill have suggested that such comments are scare tactics, insisting that prosecutional guideliness would likely prevent these cases coming before the courts.