UK rejected animal baiting agenda

Fox-hunting, hare coursing, and stag hunting have been illegal in the UK since 2004.

The notion of returning these animal cruelty practices to the British countryside was, according to opinion polls, abhorrent to a huge majority of Britons.

This is hardly surprising, since few people nowadays enjoy watching a hare become a live rope in a tug of war between two hyped-up dogs at a coursing event, or the spectacle of a fox, after a prolonged chase, having the skin ripped from its bones in a blood-crazed frenzy that passes for “sport”.

Fair play to the people of Britain for not endorsing a pro animal baiting agenda!

I hope our own politicians here in the Republic will soon follow our near neighbour’s example and consign these obscenities to where they belong: in the dustbin of history.

John Fitzgerald, Co Kilkenny