Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)

This is not an argument between rural and urban Ireland. It is a question of whether animals have the right to enjoy a relatively stress-free life. On that question, Deputy Tuffy suggested that a recovery period of three or four days is, somehow, an excuse to allow a domesticated deer to be taken off a cart and chased around the countryside by baying hounds, thereby causing risk to the public and, as the Irish Council Against Blood Sports reveals in the videos which are available to watch on YouTube, bloodshed in some instances. In this context, a three or four day recovery period is quite patronising to the animal. How many of us have owned dogs? How would Deputy Tuffy like it if I chased her pet beagle around the road or gave it a good kick up the rear end and scared the living bejasus out of it? What if I then told her that her animal would recover in a few days but that I got a great laugh out of it and sure is that not sport? I was hunting the animal and giving vent to my masculine, testosterone fuelled instincts. Normally, I leave this on the GAA pitch. My claim to fame in that respect is that I am probably the only person in Ireland who got into a fistfight with a member of his own team. That is another story.

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