There are firm indications that fox hunting will soon be made illegal in the UK,
but according to the Weekend Telegraph (Feb. 11, 1994) "the arrival of British
hounds and horses (in Ireland) would be a welcome source of new jobs at a time
of chronic unemployment and steady rural depopulation, with further benefits for
hotels, saddlers, feed merchants, horse transporters, veterinary services and other
trades."
When most people think of fox hunting with hounds, it is Britain that comes to
mind. But the real connoisseurs know better. They think of Ireland, where the
horses are better, the fields greener, and the huntsmen are not only toffs. And
most importantly, "Ireland lacks the highly organised and heavily funded
opposition to field sports that exists in Britain," says the Weekend Telegraph.
Fortunately for British hounds, large areas of rural Ireland, especially in the west
and northwest, are not regularly patrolled by existing packs and could readily
accommodate packs from the UK. Working hounds are constitutionally unsuitable
for conversion to domestic pets, and without the possibility of a safe haven in
Ireland, the British variety appears doomed.
Yet while an Irish sanctuary can make a real difference for British hounds,
Ireland's dolphins and whales, though honoured, ask what difference their very
own highly publicised sanctuary has made. All hunting of whales and dolphins in
Irish waters was already illegal before the sanctuary was established, the
fishermen are still pulling out the fish from under their noses, and the Irish Sea is
as radioactive as ever.
The grey and harbour seals are just left to cry: "Why this discrimination? America,
land of the free, is a sanctuary for all marine mammals".
The answer might be that the Irish whale sanctuary is not intended to protect the
interests of non-human animals, but the economic, social and cultural interests of
the human type. And when it comes to the dolphins and whales, it is especially
designed to give politicians a free green ride, says the cynical fox.