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The guided shooting of sheep by tourists appears to be continuing in Ireland, new video footage reveals.
The activity, first reported by the Irish Farmers Journal in November 2021, involves Irish guides facilitating hunting expeditions with American and European tourists who shoot sheep as trophies.
Meanwhile, and since original enquiries in November and December last year, the Department of Agriculture has been unable to confirm whether or not this sheep shooting activity is illegal or if it has any role in preventing it.
On Tuesday, the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) said it does not have licensing responsibility for the shooting of sheep or goats and highlighted that any animal welfare concerns in relation to this activity would be a matter for the Department of Agriculture.
A Garda Chief Superintendent in the midlands who has issued gun permits for hunting tourists, and who is aware they are used for sheep shooting, said he has no option but to do so because of a “legal and legislative loophole”.
He said the shooting of these sheep is “no different than when livestock were shot during foot and mouth”.
Video evidence
Video evidence observed by the Irish Farmers Journal and shown above was posted on YouTube on 9 June 2022 by an American individual whose Instagram account also documents a recent hunting tour to Ireland.
The video is edited from a longer video posted on the public YouTube platform.
While the vegetation in the video indicates that the hunting did not occur in recent weeks, it is understood its timeline correlates with the trip documented by the individual on Instagram, within the last number of months.
In the video, the hunting party, facilitated by an Irish hunting guide, appears to travel through Irish countryside, among fields of cattle.
They are seen first stalking and then shooting two domestic or farmed sheep breeds, a Blackface or Lanark ram and a Jacob ram.
The domestic animals are seen grazing and lying down before being shot, one after the other, in what appears to be a walled area. The individual who has shot the two sheep is then seen approaching the dead animals and posing for photos and videos.
Describing the dead Blackface or Lanark ram, the Irish man facilitating the sheep shooting activity is heard to say: “You see what I was saying, they can’t see it coming. You could come out behind them and don’t mind them and grab them by the horns.”
Locations
Photographic evidence seen later in the video and included in this edit by the Irish Farmers Journal shows some of the locations this hunting party visited during their time in Ireland.
While it is not clear whether the sheep shooting occurred in these areas, or elsewhere, the locations shown are Killarney National Park, which is managed by the NPWS, and Graiguenamanagh, Co Kilkenny.
However, the NPWS insists that the sheep shooting did not take place in Killarney National Park.
“They may have taken a video clip in Killarney and pictures of goats, but the shooting in the video is definitely not in Killarney,” a spokesperson said.
Lack of clarity
In December 2021, the Irish Farmers Journal sought comment and an update on a Department investigation into a company and its farmer owner evidenced to be facilitating sheep shooting in Co Wicklow.
The Department then said: “The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine is investigating these allegations. In the circumstances, it would not be appropriate to provide further comment at this juncture.”
Further queries seeking an update on these investigations, understood to have commenced over six months ago, have not been responded to.
Legal status
The Department has been unable to confirm if the sheep shooting activity is illegal or whether it has any role in ensuring domestic or recently farmed sheep are not used in trophy shooting.
It has been unable to outline any consequences it has at its disposal for any farmers or landowners involved in this sheep shooting activity.
This includes Department repercussions for farmers facilitating tourists to shoot sheep and farmers facilitating others to come on their land to do same, farmers buying sheep for this activity and/or farmers knowingly selling and/or transporting these sheep for this activity.
Speaking in early May, Minister of State for heritage Malcolm Noonan, who has responsibility for the NPWS, said he hopes this issue is being worked on.
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