Hunting With Dogs Bill To Be Debated In the Assembly On Tuesday
Gary McCartney, Director of Countryside Alliance Ireland is strongly opposed to Alliance MLA John Blair’s Hunting Bill currently being processed through the Assembly.
He said: “MLAs need to seriously consider whether they will support this unjustified and fundamentally flawed Bill that will have devastating effects on anyone in the countryside with dogs.
“It would not be a wise move for any MLA to support these proposals that would see farmers and ordinary dogwalkers treated as criminals.
“John Blair may continue to insist on misleading fellow MLAs and the public, but now that a top barrister is saying otherwise, he is running the very real risk that he will be seen as not just out of touch with rural communities, but out of touch with reality itself.”
A former NI Attorney General has also warned of the dangers of the Hunting With Dogs bill saying: “Dog ownership would be made more burdensome if not dangerous“.
The top lawyer has put out a stark warning about the dangers to dog owners and rural communities, should John Blair MLA’s Hunting with Dogs Bill be enacted.
Dog walkers, farmers trying to get rid of vermin, and people trying to shoot a rabbit for the pot could all be criminalised, if this “confused and unnecessarily complex Bill” is enacted, according to legal advice from top barrister John Larkin KC who was instructed by Nelson Singleton Solicitors to provide a legal opinion on the implications of the proposed legislation.
John Larkin KC, former Attorney General for Northern Ireland, said: “Persons going for a walk with a puppy who, with typically puppyish enthusiasm, runs away in pursuit of a rabbit may find themselves exposed to liability”.
He added that “if, for example, an elderly person goes for a walk with her dog and in the course of that walk the dog, quite unexpectedly, scampers off in pursuit of a rabbit or squirrel, the dog is certainly ‘pursuing’ the rabbit or squirrel and may, therefore, be regarded as hunting it even if the dog can never catch the rabbit or squirrel. In this example, the elderly person is exposed to criminal liability…”.
Larkin also highlighted: “while it will still be permitted to shoot birds using a dog, it will not be permitted to shoot deer or rabbits for recreation or for the purposes of eating them or for a combination of both of these purposes… if this Bill is enacted, ‘Shooting for the pot’ is, if a dog is used, rendered unlawful.”
He also noted that farmers trying to deal with pests such as rats on their farms would be “seriously impeded” by the proposals: “a farmer could not, without exposing himself to liability…, encourage his dog or dogs to follow the scent of rats who were devouring his grain with a view to a dog finding the rats and destroying them”.
The warnings come ahead of the Bill’s Stage 2 debate in the Assembly next Tuesday, when MLAs will have the chance to decide whether the proposals should go through to the next stage towards becoming law.
Countryside Alliance Ireland has already condemned the proposals as unjustified and potentially devastating to the countryside. As Larkin comments, the Bill if enacted would have a “generally adverse impact…on rural life and communities in Northern Ireland”.
Gary McCartney, Director of Countryside Alliance Ireland, added: “John Blair’s Bill has wide-ranging consequences and will dangerously impact all aspects of country life: from the mere act of walking a dog, to fieldsports and vital wildlife management.
“He is opting for a culture war against rural people with a full-scale attack on not only hunting, but every aspect of rural life.
“At a time when people are suffering from the cost-of-living crisis and spiralling energy bills, it defies all logic that any politician should deem this a priority for Northern Ireland.”
Mr Blair has insisted that his proposals will not affect people such as dogwalkers. Speaking to the AERA committee last month (30 April), he stated: “I built in specific reference to dog walkers in the explanatory memorandum… That conversation is sometimes used as a scare tactic by those who will never support my Bill… but I’m also aware that that can be raised as a genuine concern and I have dealt with that.”
“The proof of participation in a hunt would seriously override any emphasis on a person out walking their dog whose dog happens to chase a rabbit or another wild mammal”, he continued.
But John Larkin KC described the relevant section of the explanatory notes as “misleading”, and said that for either courts or the police, “the explanatory notes can be considered to have very little, if any, weight or value”.
In addition to disproving the claims John Blair made to the AERA committee, Larkin also says he has “serious doubts” about the compatibility of substantial parts of the Bill with the European Convention on Human Rights, which could make it outside Stormont’s legislative competence.
“John Blair may continue to insist on misleading fellow MLAs and the public, but now that a top barrister is saying otherwise he is running the very real risk that he will be seen as not just out of touch with rural communities, but out of touch with reality itself.”
However, John Blair says fox hunting is banned across the rest of the UK and he is pressing to have it banned in Northern Ireland.
Hear John Blair MLA state his case here.
In rural areas, there is ‘lamping’ going on (hunting rabbits and hares with dogs), the shooting of wild birds and the slaughter of badgers with dogs which are issues the bill could be covering, but if ‘fox hunts’ per se were to operate on the basis of scented trails then this could be acceptable assuming there was a proven and satisfactory way to control foxes in the countryside. But is there evidence for that on the table ?
What happens then if a fox breaks cover and is chased by the hounds during a scented chase is a key issue that will not escape the MLAs? The Bill may pass but could be very heavily amended.
Northern Ireland is much more rural that the urban conurbations of the rest of the UK, where class politics and rural perceptions are different. The Bill could have a bumpy ride on Tuesday but as Gary McCartney of Countryside Alliance Ireland said, there are more pressing issues for the Assembly to be addressing at the moment.
And with the Stormont election coming up in May 2027, voters may be watching their prospective MLAs and parties to see which way they will vote.
