HAVE YOUR SAY! Northern Ireland launches consultation into banning hunting with dogs

Hunting still legal but Alliance Party wants a ban

It is still completely legal to hunt wild mammals with dogs in Northern Ireland. But the Alliance Party is trying to ban the barbaric practice – and it wants you to have your say.

Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) John Blair has launched a consultation (which runs until 13/Jan/25) into his plan to use a Private Members Bill to ban the hunting of wild mammals with dogs. Blair previously brought forward a similar Bill in 2021, but it was defeated in the Second Stage by a combination of Sinn Féin and most DUP MLAs, who voted against it.

He said:

"I am hoping this time round, we can give a voice to the majority of people who remain opposed to hunting wild mammals with dogs and show Northern Ireland does not condone it whatsoever. It is crucial this is not allowed to fail again."

He continued:

“This consultation gives people an opportunity to make those voices heard and put on record their views in order to send a clear message.

Animal welfare is a high priority for Alliance, and I encourage everyone to participate, so we can bring our legislation into line with the rest of the UK and outlaw this barbaric practice once and for all.”

Learn from Scotland's mistakes

The Alliance Party said that it will address the weaknesses that it has identified in both Scotland's Hunting with Dogs Act and England and Wales' Hunting Act. The party said:

"The Bill, if passed, will also ban trail hunting and effectively outlaw flushing with dogs for pest control, also known as ‘terrier work’. Possible exemptions may apply."

Protect the Wild argues that there should be no exemptions to any law that is proposed. The party continued:

"The legislation would make illegal the use of dogs to hunt, attack and kill mammals, for example, and could include pre-emptive measures to not make available any loopholes where dogs are used for flushing in large numbers or where trail hunting becomes a bigger reality in Northern Ireland."

Slightly worryingly, the party has stated:

"Mr Blair’s new Private Members’ Bill's aspirations are comparable in ambition to Scotland’s Hunting with Dogs Act, as the latter ends illegal hunts and closes loopholes in the previous 20-year-old legislation."

Blair and the Alliance Party need to take note that an exemption in Scotland's Hunting with Dogs Act - which only came into force in October 2023 - allows hunters to carry on with their bloodshed. Like Northern Ireland, Scotland, learned from the loopholes in England and Wales' Hunting Act, and passed legislation to ban trail hunting. But it is a new loophole - its licensing scheme - that has allowed hunts to get away with murder. The scheme allows “farmers and other land managers to use more than two dogs, in limited circumstances, for appropriate and humane wildlife control.”

Back in August of this year, the Daily Record reported that NatureScot had issued more than 40 licences between November 2023 and April 2024. In 31 of these licences, the use of more than 20 dogs was permitted. The Scottish Greens' Ariane Burgess told the Daily Record:

“The Scottish Government is showing staggering complacency if this is how they envisaged the system working. The number of licences that have been issued makes clear that this is being treated as a loophole and exploited.”

Meanwhile, in England and Wales, the Hunting Act 2004 has so many loopholes that it would be hard to draw any inspiration from Tony Blair's shockingly bad legislation. Protect the Wild has covered how hunts are using these loopholes and exemptions - such as the ‘Research and Observation’ exemption used by stag hunts - many times. These loopholes and exemptions have changed a straightforward piece of legislation banning the hunting of wild mammals with hounds into something far more uncertain and malleable.

Have your say!

You can fill in the consultation survey here, even if you don't live in Northern Ireland. Protect the Wild urges the Alliance Party to take inspiration from our proposed Hunting of Mammals Bill, which was prepared by Advocates for Animals for law makers in England and Wales. Unlike the other Acts that have passed in the UK, the Hunting of Mammals Bill provides a comprehensive ban on hunting with hounds, with no exemptions or loopholes, and spells the end of fox hunting, deer hunting, hare coursing and hare hunting.

When filling in the form, we advise you to stress that there should be no exemptions to the law, and no Scotland-style licensing scheme. We also urge individuals to direct the Alliance Party to Protect the Wild's Hunting of Mammals Bill, which would truly stop hunting in its tracks.

Learning from its neighbours' mistakes, Northern Ireland has an opportunity to put forward the most robust hunting law in the UK.

• Fill in the survey 'Public Consultation - Private Members' Bill to Ban Hunting of Wild Mammals with Dogs' here.

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Sabbing and monitoring - protecting wildlife from the people who want to harm animals - can be dangerous and exhausting. But we, us, you, the groups we support are making a genuine difference, out in the field where it is needed. Hunts are losing support and being watched like never before. So, thank you to the groups out on the front line - and thank you to every single one of you who are supporting them.