Opinion piece: Why farming communities want hunting with dogs banned in Northern Ireland

Many people don’t realise that hunting is still legal in Northern Ireland.

A pressure group called Concerned Residents Groups of Ardtanagh, Shanrod and Fedney. is hoping to see hunting with dogs banned, claiming that ‘hunt havoc’ is causing financial and emotional distress and even ill health in Northern Ireland.

On Leaguecast, a podcast from League Against Cruel Sports, asked advocate and County Down farmer and landowner Christine Bailey to explain her disquiet around hunts, and why she and some of her peers want things to change.

Firstly, tell me why this matters to you?

I basically would describe myself as a horsey person. I have a couple of horses out at home here. I've done the cross-country rides when I was younger. Now that I have a couple of children, time's a bit more limited, but I do still enjoy horse riding when the opportunity arises.

We have had the misfortune of having the hunt groups out close to us and this has caused us a lot of disruption and upset and that's basically why we got our concerned residents group together to oppose the hunts coming on to our land when they're not wanted.”

Why don’t you want hunts on your land?

It's because they cause so much damage and upset. I think the term hunt havoc is probably quite a good one to use. It's the blocking of the roadways. It's the trespass on to your fields.

It's the damage to land and property and livestock. But it's also the emotional distress and upset that you have because you never actually know when they're going to appear. You know most hunts are on a Saturday, or they may alternate it so you never actually know.

I would liken it to you knowing you're going to be burgled but you don't know when. That's how we feel about it, we felt it was time that our farming friends and families stood up against the hunt.

Hunts are legal – why do they cause you distress?

For example, if I'm over at a friend's house and we're standing talking outside, if we hear dogs in the distance, we automatically go, oh, what day is it? Is there a hunt due? What time is it? Could there be a hunt coming out this way?

You know so you're always on high alert. We find, especially with the incidents that my daughter has suffered, she would be very distressed.

She has a diagnosis of PTSD with the damage from the hunts, being blocked on the road and seeing her sheep or knowing that her sheep are being killed by hounds.

She has special needs. She has conditions of hyperinsulinism, epilepsy and autism. And all of this has made her seizures a lot worse. And that's part of our claim against the hunt groups.

Has livestock been affected?

Over a number of years the hounds have gone into the field with sheep, pregnant sheep, and caused them to abort because they are basically flight animals. They make a run for it and when they're heavily pregnant, this causes them to abort the lambs. And it also means that once they have aborted, it's very difficult for them to get back into lamb again. So the farmer has to restock.

Does it only affect farmers?

We've even had anxiety from our neighbours. There's one lady who says she's afraid to take her dogs out on the road because if a hunt comes along, she has a number of Rottweiler type dogs and if the hounds come along there could be a fight which is difficult to control. So she puts off going out for a walk if she thinks it's a day the hunt is going to come.

You’ve spoken of your daughter’s health impact. Is there a financial impact too?

The latest damage was fallen stock and that means well in excess of £5,000 to £6,000. So farmers can't tolerate that. That is a baseline of a farm business where you have to factor that amount of loss once or twice a year.

It just doesn't make financial sense. I know there's cases where farmers have rented ground and had to give up the ground because financially they can't afford to rent it, have the hunt across and cause so much damage. They're in a no-win situation.

Opinions are mixed, and many say the rural community backs hunting with dogs and that they shouldn’t be stopped. Is that something you agree with?

Definitely not. I would say if anything, it's the other way around. It's probably a good bit of propaganda because possibly someone living in the town that isn't from the country would naturally think, oh, yes, people in the country generally may like hunting. But at the end of the day, speaking as a farmer's wife, we've had enough of the hunts quite literally riding over the top of us.

It's not the 1800s where we're tenant landowners. We own our own ground and even that couple of times that the hunts were out with us recently, I told the gentlemen on horseback (from the window of my car) not to go in the fields. But it didn't make a damn bit of difference.

I'll be quite honest. They went on ahead with my daughter sitting in the car screaming beside me, as she knew the hounds were going in. And the good thing, if there was a good thing, is that we have everything on dash cam. Because prior to this, we would have seen damage in the fields, we would have seen hoofmarks. We would have seen wire and fences cut, but it would have been, oh, that wasn't us. Even that day I questioned an off-duty policeman who was following the hunt. I asked him which hunt it was. He didn't know.

But I have yet to come across a farmer who said, oh, yes, please come and cut my ground up, terrorise my livestock, break my fences. There's nobody putting their hand up to that.

What do farmers against hunting want to tell the Northern Ireland government?

There was a thing called the memorandum of understanding, and it was signed by the Ulster Farmers Union, who I've been in touch with. And they're becoming more supportive.

They're beginning to see the bigger picture. We feel that if the memorandum of understanding was adhered to, there wouldn't be a problem because if everything was done the way it's supposed to be, you would know when the hunt was coming. You would be able to say, no, we don't want you hunting on our ground. We don't agree with it in principle, or we have cattle out in the field and don't want it.

But none of that is followed, so it's basically a document that is a gentleman's agreement and there is no legality to it. Even if there was legality, it's very rare that you would have enough evidence.

We are fortunate to have a car with dash cam footage on it, which is a very high quality. So we were able to have photographic and dash cam evidence of the huntsman trying to open the gate to put the hounds in – even when you can hear me quite clearly say don't do that there's pregnant sheep in that field, and then he gets on his horse, gives me the finger and rides up the road.

I've had numerous emails from different people saying we don't want them.

Why do you think a total ban is the answer?

You could say go to the big estate and hunt if you want to but leave the farmers alone. But now people are saying that's not going to happen and it has to be banned. You have to make it illegal for certain people to not want to be seen.

I must admit, the police have been much more responsive than they were initially. We've had a lot of support from them because at the end of the day, the police do not want this havoc either. They do not want roads blocked. They do not want civil unrest.

Why do you want people to contact their MLA?

So one thing I would highlight would be that say we have, for arguments sake, 50 farms. Each of those farms is going to have possibly four voters, so that's 200 votes for our MLAs. And if we have, say, half a dozen groups with that number, how many thousands of votes are going to be given or not given on the basis of not want hunting? We don't want anything on our land.

Final thoughts?

It's definitely not a city versus country issue. There are so many groups starting up locally, so many groups on Facebook, so many groups that are bonding together, because they do not want hunting on their ground. They're totally fed up with the havoc it causes and the damage as well.,

I suppose the obvious cruelty, not only to the wildlife, but to farm animals and farming families is an issue.

You can find out more on league.org.uk and people are asked to share their views on hunting with their MLA and take part in the public survey.

To find out more visit https://consult.nia-yourassembly.org.uk/agrienvra/hunting-with-dogs-bill/consultation/intro/