Sir, - Hunting with hounds is supposedly practised purely for "sport" or recreation. The same enjoyment can be secured from following an artificially laid scent which hounds can follow. This is already practised by the more enlightened equestrians, is popular in other European countries and is known as drag-hunting. There is no violence, damage to property, livestock worrying or trespass on private land, main roads or railways. Therefore drag-hunting offers a humane alternative to blood sports. It retains all the packs of hounds, the horses and all the social aspects of hunting. Irish hunters need to wake up to the fact that drag-hunting is the way forward, and that their sick addiction to live animal cruelty is outdated, unwanted and downright evil. A day will come when no live hunting with hounds will be taking place in the Irish countryside. - Yours, etc., John Tierney,
Wildlife Research Officer, Irish Council against Blood Sports, Mullingar,Co Westmeath.