Bill banning hunting with dogs in NI fails to get past second stage

A private members’ bill proposing a ban on hunting with dogs in Northern Ireland has failed to get past the second stage.
Watch more of our videos on Shots! 
and live on Freeview channel 276
Visit Shots! now

The bill was debated in Stormont today, dividing opinion amongst members.

In the end, 45 of the votes, out of 83, were opposed to the bill, which was brought before the assembly by Alliance MLA, John Blair.

Mr Blair hoped to bring Northern Ireland in line with the rest of the UK, where hunting with dogs has been banned for “almost two decades”.

Image: Countryside AllianceImage: Countryside Alliance
Image: Countryside Alliance

The Alliance MLA said fox hunting and deer hunting “should not have any place in a civilised society”.

Countryside Alliance Ireland had raised concerns the bill could potentially criminalise every dog owner in Northern Ireland, a point raised by several members of the assembly today.

Speaking on BBC’s Good Morning Ulster earlier, Mr Blair said he was concerned this was being used as a “smokescreen so as to revert to the do nothing option” and that he did not see any set of circumstances in which a casual dog walker would be prosecuted.

The Alliance MLA said it is “indisputable” that the majority of the public are opposed to hunting with dogs and “deem the practice to be completely unacceptable”.

Also speaking to the BBC show, was Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs Minister, Edwin Poots, who said he could not support this particular bill as it “isn’t well thought through”

“The problem with the hunting bill, as I see it, is that everything you do has consequences and biodiversity is a key aspect of my department and we have predators, particularly on our ground nesting birds and other smaller mammals, and if you have no ability to manage those predators, then you will further damage biodiversity in Northern Ireland,” he said.

Mr Poots added that he does not hunt and, personally, ‘does not particularly like hunting’.

He said the bill might be “well meaning, but not well thought through and has damaging consequences if it came into force”.

During today’s debate, the DUP’s William Irwin, described it as “bad legislation” and said he had received “hundreds of pieces of correspondence” from people in relation to, what he called, a “poorly thought out bill”.

He also said it painted an “unfair picture of rural life that is untrue”.

TUV leader, Jim Allister, called it “pro pest legislation”, adding, “save the pest, criminalise the dog walker”.

In his closing remarks, Mr Blair said this was a chance to “do better” and that he was happy for the issues arising from the bill to be scrutinised at committee level.

Countryside Alliance Ireland, who campaigned against the hunting bill, welcomed today’s decision.

They also thanked the “thousands of people in Northern Ireland who took the time to lobby their MLAs” ahead of today’s vote.

Gary McCartney, director of Countryside Alliance Ireland, commented: Countryside Alliance Ireland has been clear from the start that today’s bill was anti-rural and dangerous.

“Mr Blair’s bill was clumsily drafted and riddled with proposals which, if implemented, would not only potentially criminalise every dog owner in Northern Ireland, but also represent an attack on the rural way of life.

“The bill’s supporters falsely claimed it enjoyed popular support here in Northern Ireland, despite it relying on a consultation process that took submissions from across the globe.

“It is right that Assembly Members voted against this bill today and that they acknowledged the huge benefit hunting has for rural communities and for the protection of livestock from predators.”

Related topics: