AN ANIMAL RIGHTS activist group has warned that it will protest outside Fine Gael’s party headquarters tomorrow, covered in “blood”.

Members of ARAN, the Animal Rights Action Network, claims that Fine Gael plans “to repeal the Ward Union hunt ban legislation, should they get into government in the coming days”.

Fine Gael might be hoping that the only blood on the carpet in RTE tonight will be that of Labour or Fianna Fail during the last leaders’ debate of the election campaign. Members of ARAN however, say that they will be “blood”-covered (the quotation marks lead us to believe it won’t be actual blood), and carrying posters mimicking the party’s logo with the words ‘Fine Cruel’ tomorrow evening at 6pm at Upper Mount Street in Dublin.

The Ward Hunt in Meath had planned to overcome the Government ban on stag hunting with packs of dogs last autumn by tracking the stag by satellite, reported The Meath Chronicle last year.

Last weekend, the Sunday Business Post reported that Fine Gael’s environment spokesperson Phil Hogan had written to hunting associations to say that the party would be opposing “any change to existing licensing arrangements for stag hunting”.