Letter in Irish Examiner (May 12th)
 
Influential wives save animals' lives
 
According to media reports Prince Harry has given up hunting and sold all his game shooting rifles, to please his eco-conscious wife, Meghan .

As an animal protection campaigner I am familiar with many instances of this kind down the years, where compassionate women have succeeded in weaning their “other halves” off so-calling sporting activities that cause suffering to animals.

They deserve huge credit for this, especially when you think of how big game hunters travel vast distances for the pleasure of pumping lead into a majestic lion or giraffe, or a taking down a mighty elephant, posing afterwards for selfies beside the dead or dying animals, as if such a cowardly act was anything to boast about.

Less exotic creatures also bear the brunt of this primeval savagery that continues in the modern age.  In driven shoots hand- reared pheasants are targeted by gunmen walking almost shoulder to shoulder, blasting away at the semi-tame birds. Equally un-heroic is the spectacle of hare coursing, in which grown “men” stand about cheering as a gentle and inoffensive creature is forced to run for its life in a wired enclosure.  

Though women also go foxhunting, the majority of participants are male, and the gangs that dig out foxes that go to earth are composed exclusively of men.

The Campaign for the Abolition of Cruel Sports appeals to women whose husbands or partners are involved in blood sports to take them aside for a serious chat.

They can tell the lads that it’s time to spike their guns, hang up their hunting horns, and let the hare sit!

John Fitzgerald

Campaign for the Abolition

Of Cruel Sports

Callan

Co Kilkenny