Ruth Coppinger TD is bringing a bill to the Dáil that aims to ban hunting with canines in Ireland.
The TD for Dublin West, and a member of the People Before Profit Solidarity party, posted on Instagram, “This is an important step for animal welfare and against animal cruelty, I will keep you posted about the next stages and putting pressure on TDs and parties. Thanks to @banbloodsports for their input, as well as @naracampaigns.”
The Animal Health and Welfare (Ban On Fox Hunting) Bill 2025 aims to amend the Animal Health and Welfare Act 2013, which contains an exemption for hunting.
Section 12 states that “A person shall not (a) do, or fail to do, anything or cause or permit anything to be done to an animal that causes unnecessary suffering to, or endanger the health or welfare of, an animal, or (b) neglect, or be reckless, regarding the health or welfare of an animal” but adds “nothing in this section applies in relation to anything which occurs in the ordinary course of…lawfully hunting an animal, unless the animal is released in an injured, mutilated or exhausted condition, or lawfully coursing a hare, unless the hare is hunted or coursed in a space from which it does not have a reasonable chance of escape.”
Deputy Coppinger’s bill, if enacted, would add a paragraph to Section 12 to “specify that fox hunting and related practices are banned and therefore cannot be considered as lawful hunting”.
The bill focuses on banning not only fox hunting but also trail hunting and the snaring and trapping of foxes:
“A person shall not-
(a) Hunt a fox, or foxes, including with a canine or canines;
(b) Use a canine or canines to flush or dig out a fox, or foxes, from below ground;
(c) Trap or snare a fox, or foxes, in order to kill the fox, or foxes;
(d) Engage in trail hunting.”
Foxhunting Cruelty
Fox hunting is a cruel and inhumane blood sport. Fox hunting causes unnecessary suffering and stress to the fox. The practice entails setting a pack of dogs on a fox who then chase and kill the fox.
The pack of dogs are generally pursued by hunters on horseback. It is a common practice for any fox that escapes underground to have hunt followers set terrier dogs on them to kill them underground or to flush them out. It is an archaic practice with a deeply elitist culture. Public opinion is opposed to the practice with opinion polls overwhelmingly supportive of a ban on fox hunting.
Fox hunting has been banned in Britain for over 20 years, Scotland introduced a ban in 2002, and England and Wales in 2004.
Experience in Britain has shown that a loophole that permits trail hunting – where the scent of a fox is followed – often leads to the pursuit and killing of a fox.
Intagram Announcement
Ruth Coppinger, in an Instagram post in February, revealed that she was working on this bill.
She stated at the time: “Fox hunting has no benefit to anybody, except to entertain a tiny minority of usually quite privileged people. It is not a traditional pastime. It needs to be outlawed. There have been attempts to do this before. Now we need to put it up to Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and the animal-hating cabal of some of the independent TDs that are in with them. We need to put pressure on to protect animals. So I am going to be amending the Animal Health and Welfare Act to protect foxes from hunting.”
Ruth Coppinger was also instrumental in securing a ban on fur farming in Ireland. She is also in favour of a ban on greyhound racing and hare coursing.
Animal rights organisation have said that to generate political support for the bill they will step up their anti-hunting campaign to ensure that politicians are aware of the public rejection of hunting with hounds and that a ban on hunting with hounds is long overdue.
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If you have a tip for an animal welfare issue, an animal news article, a press release, or just want to just reach out to us, we’d love to hear from you. John Tierney, Animal News Ireland/Editor