Stag Hunting

Stag hunting comes in two forms in Ireland: rifle hunting and hunting with hounds.

There is only one staghound pack in Ireland: the Ward Union Hunt based in Dunshaughlin, Co. Meath. This form of hunting was made illegal in 2010; however, akin to the English continue to hunt post-ban, we have the same issue here. They hunt identically to a fox hunt, however, instead of hunting foxes they will hunt deer. How are they continuing? It is illegal to hunt a deer in Ireland with two or more hounds; however, it is not illegal to hunt the “scent of a deer”. What they are doing is releasing one of their reared deer first, letting them run around an area of land to create a scent then they are supposedly “capturing” the same deer prior to hunting. The thing is, much of their hunt country is filled with free-living deer who could easily be hunted instead. There is also the fact they are not believed to be recapturing the released deer, and nobody is watching to say otherwise, yet.

The other form of deer hunting involves rifles, usually long-distance high powered rifles. A specific license must be sought to hunt deer in this way. Deer shooting can be done “lone” or could involve groups of human people going out with medium-range rifles attempting to shoot deer. This is common on large estates and resorts, some been observed to offer deer shooting packages worth up to €15000.

Note: another less known form of deer hunting is deer culling, involving a government-contracted gunman killing dozens of deer. Common in large national parks such as Killarney National Park and Phoenix Park Dublin.