I have no financial or other interest in hunting and do not even own a gun. I cannot be accused of being lopsided because of it. A lot of people would not even know what neosporosis is. A farmer in rural Ireland whose cows are aborting will know all about it. It comes from foxes where overpopulation happens. We come from a managed landscape. We saw a few years ago, from Kerry to Donegal, throughout the country, the problem of the overpopulation of deer. People driving on the roads had to dig into their own insurance or their own pockets because of the overpopulation of deer. There were herds of deer running around the country. We have to keep things controlled. For me, as someone who would not have a gun, if your sheep is lambing and you are out at night, it is not a great sight to see - the Deputies talked about all the things that happen the fox - the head of your lamb gone or most of your lamb eaten. For people who are genuinely interested in making sure there is a viable amount of everything in a managed landscape, do they want to see an old fox waddling along the road not able to even get enough food for itself? I see Senator Brady over there. He highlighted the person in Cavan who thought the fox was going to be a nice tame animal that would be their pet and had to get five stitches. Tell that to them. In cities at the moment, people are feeding foxes. It is trying to tame a wild animal. It does not happen. You bring them three quarters of the way there and they will snarl back at you and catch you. You need to live in the rural areas to understand them. People ask why there is hunting, gun clubs or whatever. The farmer who is affected - when they go out in the morning and see the lamb or whatever gone - they have to contact someone. You do not just run up and see the fox running up the field. It happened hours ago. What we need is for them to come at weekends to make sure that they find the problem in the area. Overpopulation is a major problem.

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