People are weeping in the Garden City of Christchurch, New Zealand as bullets and bombs have spewed their lethal hate into the fabric of the city. Those with a self-proclaimed cause have decided that their cause is worth destroying people’s lives.

In Ireland there are people who believe in a similar cause. But the target here is the citizens of the field and sky. Through Government indifference, a rural zoophobia has been allowed to develop within our country.

A layer of Irish society marinated in a hatred of wild animals and birds have declared war on the non-human members of our society. Their cause has slaughtered thousands of non-human members of our society while turning the countryside into streams of blood.

Credence can be applied to the view that those involved in the recreational killing of animals and birds represent a viable danger to the safety of society. People who are violent towards animals rarely stop there. Constant exposure to animals and birds being abused destroys the viewer’s moral barrier.

Such activities cloak a sickness at the heart of individual who, at the first hint of an inter-human situation that they cannot handle and deal with in a logical and sensible manner, reaches for their lethal friend. Finding solace in the squeezing of a trigger as the life of another human being ebbs away.

Society needs to worry about individuals who take part in the recreational killing of animals. It is sobering to think that a shooting spree on Irish soil is always just a cock of a firearm away. It is time we got back to the sentiment ‘love thy neighbour’ rather than ‘shoot thy neighbour’.

John Tierney
Campaigns director,
Association of Hunt Saboteurs