ANIMAL NEWS IRELAND

Sinn Féin needs to take a stand on foxhunting.

That was the message being issued by Irish animal welfare organisations in advance of the party’s annual Ard Fheis which takes place at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast, Co, Antrim, on April 24-25.

At this annual conference, delegates will debate two motions on foxhunting as part of process to update the party’s animal welfare policy.

The proposed Motion 28 calls on party delegates to support the continuation of the cruel bloodsport, i.e. that it is “regulated” but not banned while the proposed Motion 29 calls on the party to “support a ban on the practice of fox hunting with dogs for the sole purpose of leisure”, stating that “the hunting of foxes using dogs for the sole purpose of leisure is unavoidably cruel and by necessity inflicts terror, exhaustion, irrevocable injury, and death on the foxes involved”.