England: Animals in the Care of Recreational Hunters Suffer
In England, animals in the care of recreational hunters are suffering. Undercover investigations expose systematic animal cruelty in breeding operations.
Investigative documentary exposes cruel practices of recreational hunters in Northern Ireland.
Hunting is a bloodsport in which deliberate (often fatal) fights are staged between hunting dogs and wild animals such as foxes or badgers. This cruel practice is not only widespread throughout Northern Ireland but causes unimaginable suffering for both the recreational hunters' dogs and the animals being hunted.
The new investigation revealed a shadowy underworld in which private membership groups exchange graphic videos and images of mauled prey and brutally injured dogs. It is believed that at least 150 individuals are actively involved and that there are up to 14’000 cases of cruel badger baiting in Northern Ireland every year.
Badger baiting is illegal in Northern Ireland, as badgers are a protected species. Foxes, however, enjoy no such legal protection.
We would welcome the police establishing, even if only on a temporary basis, a dedicated unit that proactively investigates this network of over 150 badger baiters in Northern Ireland and brings them to justice. While fox hunting is legal, the chances of securing a conviction as a badger baiter are slim, because there is the defence, the cover of «I was only hunting foxes«, when in reality it was badgers they were hunting. 99% of individuals laying bait in Northern Ireland were targeting both foxes and badgers.
Brendan Mullen, USPCA Chief Executive
More on the subject of recreational hunting: In the dossier The Role and Criticism of Recreational Hunters we shed light on the training, power and self-image of recreational hunters. What the research says about this is shown by Hunting fact-checked: the state of research.
The position of IG Wild beim Wild: IG Wild beim Wild rejects recreational hunting. Our model is the canton of Geneva, which has managed without recreational hunting since 1974: without hunting seasons, without hunting dogs, without driven hunts, without high seats, without the animal cruelty and crime that go hand in hand with hunting season elsewhere. What has worked there for over fifty years disproves every position paper by JagdSchweiz. An association that bases its policy on claims it refutes in its own documents is not a professional organisation, but a factory for misinformation.
