That this house would ban all blood sports as a means of entertainment

I oppose that this house would ban all blood sports as a means of entertainment. It's clear to me that this topic raises the issue of morales and much deeper than just being about hunting or dog fighting, it causes us to ask questions about human nature, and indeed, the nature of other animals with whom we share the world. Being Irish, the first things to come into my mind when i think about blood sports are fox hunting, hare coursing, dog fighting, and deer poaching. Each of these blood sports do happen in Ireland, and are a source of enjoyment for the upper, middle, and working classes. The most prevalent of these is fox hunting - which has a lot of support here among the general public. I'm positive that each of you is in some way connected to a person - be it a relative, friend, or acquaintance - who supports fox hunting. But there is also a huge amount of opposition on the topic, in fact, it became clear to me while researching the debate, that there is a majority opposition, something that i find very confusing. It is so difficult to find the arguments supporting fox hunting, and indeed all blood sports - but not because there aren't upsides - it is simply because of ignorance. The sheer volume of incorrect, prejudiced, self-patriotic anti-blood sports material out there is absolutely swamping the truthful material. People say it's cruelty - abuse to animals. I can't understand this misconception that the world is a pink fluffy soft safe place where there is no such thing as sacrifice or death. I'd imagine the majority of you reading this are meat eaters - after all, the majority population are. A lot of meat eaters prefer to eat free range, as battery farming is undoubtedly cruel and unnecesary. The free range farmers of Ireland - and many other countries - depend on the yearly fox hunt to protect their chickens and provide their livelihood. A fox finding a free range chicken farm (or even one family's personal brood of chickens), is not necesarily good for the fox himself, as that fox will learn to depend on that brood of chickens to provide him with food whenever he feels like it. He or she becomes dependant on that brood, and teaches their young to feed from it. Now the farmer, whose income has been damaged, feels the need to take action, usually in the form of laying a snare or putting out poison. This brings me nicely onto my next point: fox hunting is the most humane way of culling the rural fox population. if trapped in a snare, a fox will lie, a limb broken, in pain for days, until either a farmer comes and promptly shoots him, or until he or she starves to death. if poison is scattered carelessly about the countryside, there is a small chance that it will be ingested by a fox, and not a hedgehog, badger, rabbit, or small child. If fox hunting were banned, free range farmers - the most humane farmers around - will find it very hard to make a living, and may instead resort to battery farming, which as you know, is so so humane ;) fox hunting, more than just a sport - is a necesity in rural ireland, and what, i ask you, is wrong with getting enjoyment from something that is a necesity? there is an element of voyeurism in every single one of us. It is, as one might say, human nature. And what better place to allow voyeurism than at a controlled event, such as at the hunt. Also, to cut down another misconception, fox hunting would not have any sort of long term effect on the over-all fox population, as it generally involves culling an average of 2% of the fox population each year, allowing for it to return to normal in the spring time. Also, it affects only the fox's living near farmland and in rural areas. Moving on now to the topic of hare coursing. Whereas fox hunting is more commonly enjoyed by those of the upper-middle-class, hare coursing is known as being a sport, widely enjoyed by the working class in our society. Often used in the training of grey-hounds, it involves letting a dog loose over rural land in the pursuit of hares. Formerly a very unfair sport, modern laws have made it compulsory for dogs to wear muzzles during these pursuits, rendering them unable to kill any of the hares. In nature, these hares would normally be chased by fox's anyway, and these chases are already a part of their lives. The dogs do no harm; need i say more? I'll now move onto the topic of deer poaching. During certain times of the year, various different establishments in Ireland open their land to deer stalking. It involves people following a herd of deer (aka stalking), and eventually shooting one. Taxidermy is very uncommon nowadays; the meat, known as venison, is usually eaten. I ask you what is the difference between this and buying meat in the shops? In fact, I would even see this as a sign of a lack of ignorance. Nowadays, many meat-eaters would cringe at the thought of an animal dying but are unashamed to dig into a burger or steak; a sign of complete ignorance as to how that meat got there. The shot resulting in the death of the deer is quick and results in death almost instantly. The shooting areas have rules and restrictions on how to go about deer stalking in the most humane way possible. To deny humans of such a hunt is to deny humans to practise their basic human instinct and nature. People who are so concerned about animal rights should pause for a moment, and realise that we are animals too. Our greatest injustice to other animals, if anything, was domestication, our training them to cast off their basic nature. So why cast off our own? We cannot ignore our instincts. I will finish with a quote from Charles Darwin: "Man with all his noble qualities, with sympathy which feels for the most debased, with benevolence which extends not only to other men but to the humblest living creature, with his god-like intellect which has penetrated into the movements and constitution of the solar system- with all these exalted powers - Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin." Better to have man satisfy his voyeuristic ways that he carries from this 'lowly origin' in controlled situations, than on battlefields, or through wasteful murder. Try as we might, we cannot cast off our instincts. If we are to consider other animals fairly as our equals, then we must take into account, animals kill animals to survive. What is not wasteful is not cruel. It is nature.