Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

I am very glad to be here discussing this long-overdue and important Bill. I fully support the idea of legislation to ensure the protection of the welfare of animals. An attempt to outlaw cruelty in any form is obviously to be welcomed. The increase in penalties is a very progressive measure and I support it. However, I have serious concerns about a number of specific exclusions from the Bill and they will have to be dealt with by amendment. If not, the very status and virtue of the health and welfare legislation will be undermined.

The Minister really needs to address the area of enforcement, a matter which represents a gaping hole in the legislation. If the legislation is to be effective, sufficient resources will have to be put in place to make it work. The concept of authorised officers is good. There is flexibility in the sense that an officer could be a member of An Garda Síochána, a Customs and Excise officer, a ministerial appointee or a manager of a local authority. It is welcome and very positive that authorised officers will have the power to enter and inspect premises, examine animals and vehicles, ask for records and seize animals where they, the officers, have a reasonable belief that an offence has been committed.

The penalties and fines are to be increased and there is to be imprisonment for offences. It will be possible to have somebody disqualified from owning an animal or working with an animal where he or she has been found guilty of an offence. All of these are really good measures but we must not look at them in isolation. We must consider them against the backdrop of the embargo on public service recruitment. There are fewer gardaí, customs officers and county council workers, and there is no prospect of this changing. The public sector, as it exists, will not be able to undertake the very important and necessary extra responsibilities, as meritorious and necessary as they may be, unless money is invested to develop this area.

Unless the Minister addresses this matter during the passage of the Bill it is a welcome but meaningless aspiration. It must be supported and the issue requires further examination.

It is positive that the Bill refers to a new and welcome concept of a duty of care to animals. As citizens and human beings, we have such a duty. The idea that legislation and resources would be designed to prevent unnecessary suffering, for example, through the provision of food and shelter, and deal with issues of abandonment, humane slaughter and animal fighting is a good one.

These are progressive measures, but they must be squared with the exclusion of hare coursing and hunting from the protection provided under section 12, which defines cruelty. The Bill acknowledges that these practices are cruel and inflict pain and unnecessary suffering, yet it exempts them from the protection it rightly provides in other circumstances. This is not adequate in a civilised society and is not good enough in a Bill on animal welfare. It is certainly not good enough for hares and foxes.

The time has come to stop bending the knee to the vocal lobby groups of the coursing clubs and hunts and to recognise the reality, namely, that the majority of citizens are opposed to this barbarity and want animals protected. It is regrettable that the Minister's colleague has given the go-ahead for another season of live hare coursing. Coursing clubs are out capturing hares for live baiting sessions that will last from the end of this month until February. We must recognise that support for this blood sport is in decline. There are only 89 hare coursing clubs, representing a significant reduction on previous times. In parallel, there has been an increase in public support for a ban on hare coursing. Every professional marketing survey conducted since 1978 on attitudes towards hare coursing in Ireland has revealed that a substantial majority of the population favours its abolition. Many of those polls were carried out following the introduction of the muzzling of dogs in 1993. The Bill does not represent the views of the majority in that regard. This serious omission will play a major role in the debate on amendments.

Let us be clear. These are not harmless, innocent activities. The animals do not enjoy them. They are not natural pursuits and are cruel, as demonstrated by the fact that the Minister has needed to exempt them from protection under the Bill. Animals are cruelly taken from their environments, confined and coerced to run in straight lines from dogs in wired enclosures. How could this be an enjoyable experience for any animal? Of course it is not. In nature, the hare knows no enemies. When it is threatened, it sits up to signal to other animals that it will be able to outrun them. Generally speaking, a fox or another predator will back off because it will not be able to outrun the hare. When a hare sits up, it is not waiting for the dog to give chase for the craic. Hares do not expect to be chased. It is unnatural for them.

I will not outline the litany of cruelty inflicted on hares, but let us say that compelling and indisputable evidence has been produced by the National Parks and Wildlife Service under freedom of information provisions that outlines a catalogue of fatalities and injuries to hares during last year's coursing season. If I went through them all, we would be here all day. In Ennis, seven hares were hit and there were eight fatalities. In Gorey, 16 hares were hit by dogs. In another part of County Wexford, 12 hares were left unfit for coursing. According to the club's hare capture return, 86 hares were captured, yet only 75 were listed on the first day of coursing without an explanation for the discrepancy. In Thurles, two hares were killed, two were injured, two died overnight and so on.

One of the most compelling pieces of evidence is the report of a ranger who described an incident in County Westmeath. The report reads:

There were nine hares hit on Day one. Of these, one hare was tossed and rolled on the ground; another hare was tossed and mauled; another was mauled on the ground by the two dogs and placed in a wooden box; another was hit about five times and mauled on the ground by the dogs. When the dog owners came running in, one of them grabbed the hare and lifted it away from the dogs by its side .... The hare cried with what I presume was distress during this incident. The steward placed this hare in the wooden box. Another hare was tossed and badly mauled by the dogs later in the day. In all, three hit hares were retrieved and placed in a wooden box. The box was subsequently taken away ... one died and two were released [in a damaged and injured state].

In my opinion and that of the majority of citizens, there is no justification for the continuation of this barbaric and cruel practice. It is a rubbish, as has been hinted at today and will undoubtedly be repeated in subsequent discussions, that this is a tradition and is natural. It is not a tradition. Ironically, it was imported into Ireland by the occupying British forces in the Curragh in the early 1800s. Even if it were a tradition, would that make it acceptable in a modern society? Friday night at the colosseum was a tradition in downtown Rome years ago, but we are not advocating that gladiators fight or that a few Christians be thrown to the lions for people's amusement.

The fact that hares can die of disease or so on is irrelevant. Any animal or human can suffer disease or accidents. Is that a licence to kill or a justification for the continuation of this practice? Clearly, it is not. The measures undertaken in the 1990s, for example, the muzzling of dogs, have not resulted in an end to death or injury. Maimings still occur. It is not good enough to allow this unnecessary practice to continue.

If people like the idea of competition and greyhound racing, they can do what has been done in many other countries, namely, race their dogs in drag coursing. The success of the greyhound industry does not depend on killing and maiming hares. It would be a far greater boost to the greyhound industry were hare coursing outlawed and replaced by drag coursing, as this would make it more appealing to people who are turned off by the current practice.

The need for an animal welfare Bill that bans hare coursing once and for all is one of this legislation's most contentious elements and will be hotly debated on Committee and Report Stages. Hare coursing has been banned in most countries.

That fox hunting has been similarly excluded is remiss. There is a recognition of cruelty but under the Bill it does not matter and will be allowed to proceed. We must consider how to outlaw the digging out of animals or the sending of terriers or other animals below ground to catch or attack creatures. Using a pack of dogs to harass, injure or kill an animal should be included in the Bill as an offence. There is nothing amusing, traditional or fun about that reprehensible practice.

If the legislation is to be truly meaningful, we must factor that in.

An issue that has been much highlighted as an omission from the legislation is the lack of provisions to deal with fur farming, which outrages many citizens. I am aware that this activity was meant to be phased out by not renewing licences and so on but the idea of a ban nonetheless came forward. The Minister has undertaken a review in the area but we have not seen anything substantial in this regard and there are no measures in the Bill to deal with the issue. We must revisit the matter and build some measures into the Bill to deal with the ongoing barbaric fur farming in the State. Perhaps issue could be taken with the regulation of breeding, and there is an argument that this could be part of separate legislation. We may need to consider on Committee Stage amendments to reinforce our stance.

I welcome the Minister in bringing the Bill before the House, as it is a substantial body of work with some very good measures. If these are introduced and properly resourced, they could transform the issue and outlaw much of the cruelty that is sadly perpetuated by a minority of people against the wishes of the majority of the population. It is a progressive Bill in that sense, although there are glaring exclusions which must be dealt with. When the Minister returns I would like him to address how the Bill will be resourced in order to empower or develop staff or authorised officers to deal with the extra tasks that have correctly been placed on their shoulders.

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