Sir, - Many city-dwellers have become so accustomed to seeing foxes and fox-cubs at close range. To most it is a welcome sight. These gentle creatures come and go, surviving on scraps from urban dustbins and by all accounts the urban fox bothers no one.
The country or rural situation is very different. The farmer considers the fox a threat to his so-called livelihood, and accuses him of killing all in sight despite the minute statistic of 0.5 per cent of lambing losses being due to predation. Foxes are used and abused in the name of sport by bloodthirsty human animals with guns, greyhounds, terriers and jeeps. Lamping (night shooting) is common as is shooting on sight.
August heralds the approach of the cubbing or autumn hunting season by foxhunting packs throughout the country. The six to seven months-old fox cubs are torn from the vixen's side to provide "live" training for the foxhunters' new hounds. A cover is surrounded and the fun begins. The hesitant newly recruited hounds are blooded and primed to fill the gaps left in the foxhound pack by their dead successors - those hounds that were unlucky enough to fail the trailing or scenting tests last time around.
Averages of 30 hounds a season are killed by each foxhunt and this is done either by shooting or by pro-hunting veterinary surgeons. Ireland boasts 300 to 400 hunts, so the tally of death and suffering is immense.
All in all, who would be a fox - or indeed a hound - in the green fields of Ireland today? As in the UK our politicians are sitting on the fence and the early morning outings of Ireland's men in "pink" go mostly unnoticed. The reason is obvious. The bloody scene is not a pretty sight. - Yours, etc.,
Bernie Wright Association of Hunt Saboteurs, PO Box 4734, Dublin 1