Protest against shameful exemption of Hare coursing and Fox hunting from prohibition under new "Animal Welfare" Act

international | environment | opinion/analysis

Friday March 29, 2013 15:44

by Ban animal cruelty posing as "sport"

TDs join protest against animal cruelty practises hare coursing and fox hunting

Members of several animal welfare and animal rights groups and sympathetic TDs held a peaceful protest outside Dail Eireann on Thursday, March28th, to express their abhorence of the "exemptions"for the barbaric "sports" of hare coursing and fox hunting that the government has inserted into the Animal Health and Welfare Bill.

A clear message to the governement on bloodsports

Deputies Clare Daly, Maureen O' Sullivan, and Patrick Nulty had tried valliantly in the Dail to persuade Minister Simon Coveney to change his mind and remove the pro bloodsport exemptions. Today, Thursday, the Bill could be voted through by the Dail and then rubber-stamped later by the Senate.

A disturbing feature of the Dail debate on the Bill was how the whip system forced many anti-hare coursing TDs to vote down the amendments from Deputies Daly and O' Sullivan that would have banned bloodsports. Among the government TDs was Justice Minister Alan Shatter, a former President of the Irish Council Against Blood Sports who himself tried to get hare coursing abolished in the mid 1980s!

The Bill specifically exempts from prohibition hare coursing, fox hunting, and the practise of “digging out” foxes or fox-cubs that go to ground during a hunt.

It is an absolute disgrace that a law the government boasted would radically overhaul our animal welfare standards will exclude two perverse forms of recreation that belong in the Dark Ages and were even then opposed by courageous men and women of conscience. Instead of protecting the fox and the hare, treasured facets of our wonderful wildlife heritage, the new law will protect the interests of those who torment and persecute these animals for “sport”.

The Animal Health and Welfare will be a stain on Ireland’s reputation and can be cited as a perfect example of what happens when political cronyism trumps fair minded decision-making. It would be laughable, were it not for the fact that the wily fox and the gentle hare are on the butt end of this very sick joke.

Campaigners against blood sports from many groups including Irish Council Against Blood Sports (ICABS), Alliance for Animal Rights (AFAR), the Hunt Saboteur Organisation, and the Campaign for the Abolition of Cruel Sports (CACS) joined the protest at the Dail against the exemptions for recreational animal cruelty in the Bill

Here is a brief film of "digging out" of a fox...made by foxhunters themselves in County Galway. This practise will remain legal under Minister Coveney's proposed exemptions:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QCqLxbgVcs&feature=play...edded

The cruel nature of live hare coursing that all animal welfare groups, and (according to opinion polls) the majority of the Irish people, object to, has been repeatedly captured on film. The veracity of the following footage has not been questioned. As you will see, the “action” filmed is very similar to the types of incidents observed and reported by NPWS rangers.

The following three pieces of footage were filmed at the 2013 “Irish Cup” live hare coursing event, held at Limerick Racecourse in February:

1)

Cruel coursing scene at Limerick Racecourse
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xy224b_disgusting-crue...imals

2)

Hare cries out when hit and mauled
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xy21zl_hare-cries-out-...imals

3)

Hare severely mauled and carried off field
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xy21v5_hare-severely-m...imals

4) A brief film about hare coursing in Ireland:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/k1L1JfKi3N8RkNAwGy?sta...rt=12