THE Irish countryside has been changed irrevocably by human habitation, farming and other activities, with biodiversity being lost. Once-common species have become vulnerable. Loss of apex predators has left mesopredator populations like foxes to flourish, to the detriment of their prey species. Only wildlife management can mitigate the changes man has wrought and deal with these problems.

The defeated 2025 Animal Health and Welfare (Ban on Fox Hunting) Bill proved that the majority of TDs in Ireland understand the Veterinary Association for Wildlife Management, because as a wild animal the fox is hunted in the environment that it knows. It is used to hunting and being hunted. It is adapted to it by evolution. What might be a shocking experience for man or a domestic pet is part of normal daily life in the wild for a fox. Hunting with dogs is natural, since it does not use any alien technology, for which the fox has no natural defence or coping mechanism. The kill, if it occurs, is instantaneous and, above all, certain.