Representatives from the hunting community have outlined their objection to new legislation that seeks to ban the hunting of mammals with dogs.

The Hunting with Dogs Bill has been brought forward by Alliance MLA John Blair and is currently being considered by the Stormont Agriculture Committee.

If enacted, it would prohibit traditional hunting with horses and hounds, as well as trail hunting and terrier work.

ADVERTISEMENT

There are some limited exemptions to allow the protection of livestock and crops, although only a maximum of two dogs could be used when, for example, flushing out foxes from cover.

At the Stormont Agriculture Committee last Thursday, representatives from NI Says Enough (NoISE) said they would not be putting forward any amendments. Instead, they argued the proposed legislation should be dropped as it “is not fit for purpose” and goes against “objective scientific evidence”.

The content of the Bill was the subject of a public consultation that concluded in January 2025, receiving 12,011 responses, with 72% of those from NI supporting a hunting ban.

However, in his opening remarks, Dr Cathal Cassidy from NoISE pointed out that 7,147 responses came from people outside of NI, leaving 4,864 from here, of which, only approximately 3,500 local people supported the bill.

“And yet the headline claims were 72% of the population support a ban. So, this is the persuasive power of numbers to mislead,” said Cassidy.

The NoISE representatives also argued that a quick kill by a dog needs to be compared against other methods that will have to be used to control wildlife if hunting is banned, such as shooting, trapping, poisoning or gassing.

As well as being the most humane method, other work quoted by NoISE has shown that hunting by dogs inevitably results in weak and diseased animals being caught, leaving a healthy population of wildlife (foxes) behind.

In addition, the NoISE representatives said the proposed legislation has implications for wildlife control around infrastructure sites, as well as schools, hospitals, etc where shooting is not an option.

There is also the need to control foxes and other predators to help manage habitats for nesting birds, but if only two dogs can be used to flush out foxes, then this process takes up to five times longer, which is bad for the welfare of the animals being chased.

“My concern is a lot of time the Bill is put across as mounted hunting, but actually when we look really into it, there’s a lot a lot of things affected and a lot of unintended consequences,” said Steven McGonigal from NoISE.

USPCA

Following on from the hunting representatives, the committee also took evidence from Heather Weir from the Ulster Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (USPCA).

She described hunting with dogs as an “archaic practice which belongs in the past”.

While she did recognise it is necessary to control predators and vermin with dogs in some circumstances, she said this should only be done as a last resort, with those taking part licensed to do so.

When asked whether the USPCA has engaged with farmers for their views on the proposed legislation, Weir maintained that they often hear from farmers who do not want hunts taking place on their land.