Hunting with dogs Bill: 'I've been sent online threats in relation to the Bill'

“A lot of the threats that are made against politicians now are online threats,” he said.

"Anonymous trolls contact us on a regular basis. I've had quite a bit of unpleasantness, and I have once or twice had to speak to police.

“But there's also a responsibility for politicians to take note of things that might contain any kind of threat or anything that's actionable, any falsehoods, any accusations”.

He said the Bill ‘to prohibit hunting wild mammals with dogs; to prohibit trail hunting; to prohibit terrier work; and to set out exemptions from these prohibitions’ was brought forward because it's been Alliance Party policy for a number of years – so to answer those who have called it my personal crusade, “it is party policy”, he said.

“It's an election commitment that I was elected on and mandated to carry out, and it was Alliance Party policy before I was in MLA.

"All I’m doing is taking forward a policy for which I believe there is considerable public demand and a high level of expectation.”

The Alliance MLA said there has been “misrepresentations of what I'm doing and what I'm about”.

“I have never said we have to do it because somebody else does it – like England, Scotland, Wales.

"I want to bring an end to barbaric animal cruelty, which is masked as, in some cases, pest control or recreation or great community-spirited events,” he said.

"When, in actual fact, those who make the claims about community spirit and recreational value are completely overlooking the strength of feeling in the very same rural areas of people appalled by terrier work when it's for the kill only, and appalled by other forms of country sports where people are killing animals for no reason other than fun.

"I think people who look at look at what I've done rationally will know that I haven't come into this as some radical campaigner”.

John believes “there’s greater political support for this than there's ever been”.

"I think society is very often ahead of politics,” he said. “And on this one, there's ample proof that the support would number about 70%.

"And I wonder sometimes would the figure be even higher when you factor that around 50% of people think it's already illegal”.

The south Antrim MLA said that “for every group of people in the countryside who think hunting's okay, there is I would contend a larger group of people who think it isn't okay”.

"People trying to ban hunts from coming onto their land,” he added.

"So this assumption that everybody in rural areas thinks hunts are okay needs to stop. It's a generalisation, a sweeping generalisation, which is presumptuous to say the least, and also doesn't represent the wider body of public opinion.”

Mr Blair said the example of the dog walker ending up being prosecuted “is the best example of nonsense”.

"I will assure dog walkers that they're not going to be criminalised as part of my bill,” he said.

“ I suspect that most people don't read the subsections of bills and the explanatory notes that are brought forward by MLAs in the Legislative Assembly.

"Anybody who's heard the scaremongering, look at England, Scotland, Wales, where this type of hunting has been banned for decades.

"Try and find a single dog walker who's ever been apprehended, accused, or convicted. They don't exist”.