11 Property agents thanked for removing bloodsports from listings

ICABS has thanked Irish property agents for responding positively to an appeal and removing bloodsports references from online listings.

A big thumbs up to Rent.ie, Property.ie, Daft.ie and HogansIrishCottages.com who have all removed references to hunting from property listings. The move came after we highlighted the cruelty involved and the fact that any mention of bloodsports in the vicinity of a property could prove very off-putting to many potential buyers or renters.

ICABS also welcomes a response from Colliers International who have said that they are in the process of taking down any reference to blood sports from their site.

Keep cruelty out of property listings. Please Sign our Petition now!

12 Wicklow National Park removes "vermin" claim

ICABS has thanked Wicklow Mountains National Park for removing a claim on its website that "many people regard foxes as vermin". In response to an appeal, a spokesperson thanked us for bringing the inaccuracy to its attention and emphasised that the park does not regard foxes as vermin.

In an email to the park, ICABS pointed out that most people regard foxes, not as vermin, but as a valuable part of Ireland's wildlife heritage.

The park also replaced a claim that foxes "have a bad name with farmers because they will kill poultry and very young lambs" with "many farmers believe that foxes will kill young lambs, but studies have not yet proven whether this is so, or whether they only take already dead or dying lambs. They will also scavenge the carcasses of dead deer and sheep."

ICABS referred to a National Parks and Wildlife Service educational leaflet ("Heritage Highlights") which makes it clear that "no matter what people think, foxes seldom kill and eat young lambs."

Statistics show that the main causes of mortality are abortion & still-birth, infectious disease, exposure and starvation.

Find out more about Wicklow Mountains National Park at www.wicklowmountainsnationalpark.ie

13 Hunter fined for importing illegal and inhumane animal traps

ICABS has congratulated the NPWS, An Post and Irish Customs whose actions led to the conviction of a hunter who imported illegal traps into Ireland. Brendan Keady of Dalgan Park, Shrule, Co Mayo was fined 150 Euro for importing the traps which he bought on Ebay.

The Mayo Advertiser reported in its January 18th 2013 edition that An Post intercepted the parcel containing the 12 traps and contacted Customs who then contacted the National Parks and Wildlife Service.

Keady, an unemployed member of a local gun club, told the court that he paid 106 Euro for the traps on Ebay.ie. He claimed that he was unaware that they are illegal in Ireland and was going to use them to catch mink and foxes.

According to the Mayo News, he told Castlebar District Court that "he is a member of a local gun club and had won the vermin competition for the last five years in a row which involved killing animals such as foxes and minks."

In response to a question from Judge Mary Devins about the dangers to humans walking around fields, Keady said the traps were put into a tunnel to trap the animal.

Eoin McGreal from the National Parks and Wildlife said in court that traps imported by Keady are leg traps and are therefore deemed inhumane as the animal remains alive but trapped.

Judge Devins convicted Keady and fined him 150 Euro. She also granted a forfeiture order for the traps.

 ACTION ALERT 

If you are aware of anyone possessing, importing, selling and/or using illegal traps, contact the National Parks and Parks and Wildlife Service - Tel: 01-888 3242 or Email: nature.conservation@ahg.gov.ie Please also notify ICABS.

Information about traps that are illegal in Ireland can be found on our Campaigns page at www.banbloodsports.com

14 Glamorous front hides the cruel view to a kill

Sunday Independent, January 06 2013

It's a new year, but some things don't change – like the St Stephen's Day hunts that took place in Ireland. Which is ironic, given that foxhunting is banned in the country where it originated. Opinion polls confirm huge public support in England for keeping it that way.

But we do things differently here. Hunters insist that their blood sport is fine, and our leaders support them. Certainly, everything looked great at local hunts on St Stephen's Day in Kilkenny.

I've never seen so many gleaming white shirts. Everyone was groomed to an inch of their lives. Leather boots were polished like mirrors. Many women hunters wore full make-up. Parents led the way as their children trotted behind. Publicans offered them mince pies, as if the hunters were warriors heading off to battle forces of evil.

Some locals watched the spectacle. It's not every day that you see people on horseback, dressed to the nines and armed with whips and hounds.

The hunt paraded around town before setting off. And that was it. For unlike other sports, the actual event takes place out of sight. Or sound. That's when foxhunting's slip peeped from under its finery. For this blood sport's agenda is to hide its barbarity by performing a PR job. All that the public see is an opening ceremony, not the carnage that follows. This sport's image is all pomp and ceremony, as if a kill is irrelevant.

I commend those for whom it is, having opted for drag hunting. They show true sportsmanship. Some prefer the control and faster pace of a drag hunt. Others simply realise that it's neither kind nor clever to persecute an animal for fun.

But foxhunters refuse to drop the savagery. They're like men who won't wear condoms because it doesn't 'feel' as good. Their pleasure is paramount, and to hell with the consequences.

Yet traditions must stand the test of time. Foxhunting was one thing when we didn't know better. But there's a name in the 21st Century for people who enjoy terrorising animals. Only an outdated and dangerous mentality equates strength with cruelty. Are parents who bring their children on hunts teaching them that power gives you the right to persecute the vulnerable?

An older country gentleman at a hunt last year confided his sadness to me. What he lamented most, he said, was the want of a vet "for the end".

And there's the rub. For who can admire a 'sport' that looks glamorous at the starting line, but turns ugly after galloping away with its pack of hounds? To hunt a poor fox to a terrible finale, instead of letting it share the privilege of living into a new year.

- Fiona O’Connell

15 Dept rejects call to stop killing lactating female badgers

The Department of Agriculture has shamefully rejected a call to stop killing lactating female badgers. Condemning the Department's badger snaring as "cruel and inhumane", the Irish Wildlife Trust highlighted that when mother badgers are killed, their dependent cubs will starve to death underground.

The Irish Times (January 18, 2013) has reported that the IWT says badgers are an endangered species and are calling for an immediate ban on culling lactating females until July.

Responding, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine told the Times that there was "no requirement for a closed season in relation to badger culling".

According to the Irish Wildlife Trust, 6,000 Department snares are set in Ireland every night and a total of 90,000 badgers have been killed by the Irish Government since 1984.

"The Irish Wildlife Trust is opposed to badger culling and the use of snares," the group outlines on its website (www.iwt.ie). "Badgers can die over extended periods struggling in these hideous devices while their young starve underground. Not only is it barbaric and unethical, recent findings have shown it to be ineffective in the war on bovine TB. Nobody has ever counted badgers accurately in this country and while it has always been assumed that they are common animals, this can no longer be taken for granted."

 ACTION ALERT 

Please contact Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney and demand an end to his department's cruel snaring and killing of badgers.

Minister for Agriculture
Department of Agriculture
Agriculture House,
Kildare Street, Dublin 2.
Email: minister@agriculture.gov.ie
Tel: 01-607 2000 or LoCall 1890-200510.
Fax: 01-661 1013.

Please contact the National Parks and Wildlife Service. Remind them that the Wildlife Act, for which they are responsible, lists the badger as a protected species. Demand that they stop licensing the snaring and killing of thousands of badgers.

Director, Licensing Unit
National Parks and Wildlife Service
7 Ely Place, Dublin 2
Email: nature.conservation@ahg.gov.ie
Tel: 01-888 3214

Sign a Petition: 'Stop badger culling in Ireland'

Visit the Badger Watch Ireland website - www.badgerwatch.ie

Join our appeal to the Agriculture Minister. Send one of our "Stop the Badger Snaring Slaughter" postcards. To receive one or more copies, please get in touch with us now.

16. 210 successful prosecutions for NPWS in six years

The National Parks and Wildlife Service has secured 210 successful prosecutions in the past six years, according to details provided to ICABS President, Maureen O'Sullivan TD.

ICABS welcomes each successful prosecution and applauds the rangers involved. However, the figures show that there is an average of just over 1 successful prosecution per county per year.

"There were 244 completed prosecutions taken by the National Parks and Wildlife Service in the period 2006 to the end of June 2012 and some 210 prosecutions were successful," Minister for Arts and Heritage, Jimmy Deenihan, outlined in response to a Dail question from Deputy O'Sullivan. "These prosecutions related to various breaches of the Wildlife Acts and Habitats Regulations which included cases with regard to the destruction of vegetation during the restricted periods, unlawful hunting and the possession of illegal traps and snares."

ICABS is urging Minister Deenihan to divert more funds into the NPWS so that rangers can be provided with the resources needed to fully tackle Ireland's wildlife crime.

 ACTION ALERTS 

Ask Minister Jimmy Deenihan to provide more funding to the NPWS so that wildlife crime can be fully tackled and those responsible prosecuted.

Jimmy Deenihan, TD
Minister for Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht Affairs
Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht
23 Kildare Street
Dublin 2

Email: ministersoffice@tcs.gov.ie
[With a copy to An Taoiseach, Enda Kenny and An Tanaiste, Eamon Gilmore]
Tel: (01) 631 3802. Fax: (01) 661 1201

SAMPLE LETTER
(If you have time, please compose your own personal letter. Otherwise, feel free to send the short sample letter below. Be assertive, but polite, in all correspondence. Thank you.)

Dear Minister Deenihan, I understand from a reply to a Dail question from Maureen O'Sullivan TD that the NPWS has secured 210 successful prosecutions in the past six years. I welcome this but note that it amounts to an average of just over one successful prosecution per county per year. I urge you to divert more funds into the National Parks and Wildlife Service so that rangers are given the resources needed to fully tackle wildlife crime across the country. Yours sincerely, [Name/Location]

Please report breaches of the Wildlife Act

Please get in touch with the National Parks and Wildlife Service if you have information on breaches of the Wildlife Act, the Wildlife (Amendment) Act 2000, EU Habitats and Birds Directives, Habitats Regulations, Traps, Snares and Nets Regulations 2003, etc. See below for contact numbers for NPWS offices around Ireland.

Please contact ICABS if you require names/email addresses for rangers in your area.

More information about the NPWS at
www.npws.ie

17 Dramatic and on-going decline in Irish hare numbers

The Irish Hare Initiative has called on Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney to retract an "extremely misleading" claim that the "Irish Hare population is significantly increasing".

Coveney made the statement in the Dail after pointing to hare surveys which estimated that Irish hares in the Republic numbered approximately 233,000 in early 2006 and 535,000 in early 2007.

"Whilst the figures you quote are correct, your assertion that the 'hare population is significantly increasing' is without foundation and extremely misleading," Mike Rendle of the Irish Hare Initiative stated in a letter to the Minister. "Indeed the most recent and robust time-series data suggest that our Irish hare population continues to suffer a definite downward trend."

He continued: "The increase quoted in the period 2006-2007 is not exceptional for Irish hares given the cyclical nature of their population trend. Indeed such an increase may be predicted every three years. However, the decrease in each cycle is greater than the increase thus resulting in a net reduction in hare numbers. This pattern is supported by other, quite separate, time-series hare counts. So, notwithstanding a regular and predictable cyclic component to current Irish hare dynamics, the population is experiencing an on-going downward trend. As the [accompanying] graph clearly shows, counts of Irish hares have fallen by 50 per cent since 2004."

The Belfast-based Irish Hare Initiative has called for an end to the persecution of hares.

"Given the dramatic and on-going decline in hare numbers, any activity such as coursing that is likely to place unnecessary pressure on this already vulnerable species should be reviewed and outlawed," they told Minister Coveney. "The Northern Ireland Assembly has already outlawed hare coursing and we would like to see the most robust protection given to this declining species throughout our island."

Visit the Irish Hare Initiative website at http://www.irishhare.org

 ACTION ALERT 

Contact Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney now and demand that a coursing exemption is removed from the Animal Health and Welfare Bill 2012.

Contact Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney now and demand that a coursing exemption is removed from the Animal Health and Welfare Bill 2012.

Minister Simon Coveney
Department of Agriculture
Agriculture House,
Kildare Street, Dublin 2.
Email: minister@agriculture.gov.ie
CC: taoiseach@taoiseach.gov.ie (An Taoiseach)
Tel: 01-607 2884 or LoCall 1890-200510.
Fax: 01-661 1013.

Contact all your local TDs now. Demand that they urgently help save foxes from cruelty and back a ban on hunting and digging out.

Find out the names of your TDs and their email addresses.

http://www.oireachtas.ie/members%2Dhist/default.asp?housetype=0&HouseNum=31&disp=const
http://www.oireachtas.ie/viewdoc.asp?fn=/documents/Members_emails/document1.htm

18 Columnist criticised for suggesting hunter invitation

Irish Daily Mail columnist, Tom Doorley, has been criticised for suggesting that Ireland should consider inviting hunters to visit during The Gathering.

Speaking on 2FM's Colm Hayes show on 7th January, Mr Doorley said "I'm not a pro-hunting lobbyist by any means. My own view is each to their own. I wouldn't like to do it but I'm not going to stop other people doing it. If we have that to offer, should we not [offer it]?"

Describing hunting as "highly controversial", he went on to say that while he isn't anti-hunting, he wouldn't want to participate in a hunt. "I don't see what's fun about chasing animals across the countryside and killing them," he said.

"You can tell how civilised a nation is by the way it treats its animals," one listener texted in to the Colm Hayes show. "Please don't offer hunting as a holiday activity."

In a message to Tom Doorley, ICABS expressed disappointment at his suggestion that an invitation be extended to hunters. Hunting involves extreme cruelty to animals, we told him, and its shameful continuation in Ireland will prove to be a major blemish on our country's international reputation during the Gathering year.

If you would like to hear the full item, download the show podcast and forward to the 7 minute 55 second mark.

19 Renewed appeal: Ask hotel to stop publicising cruelty fest as a "sporting event"

The Irish Council Against Blood Sports has renewed its appeal to the Clonmel Park Conference, Leisure & Spa Hotel in County Tipperary to stop publicising hare coursing. On its website, the hotel presents the local coursing cruelty festival as a "sporting event" and those who attend it as "sports people".

"Clonmel is noted in greyhound circles for being the home of the annual National Hare Coursing Meeting in early February," a notice on the hotel's Attractions & Events page outlines. "Included in this event is the prestigious Ladies' International Open Meeting and the coursing derby."

The hotel has previously been urged to disassociate from coursing. In an advert placed in a coursing booklet, the hotel extended a "welcome to all visitors to the national coursing meeting". The advert also highlighted that the hotel is "just 5 minutes drive from the coursing grounds" and that a coursing video was to be shown nightly at the hotel.

Clonmel Park Conference, Leisure & Spa Hotel is part of the Brennan Hotels Group. Last year, ICABS told management that at the Sevenhouses coursing meeting, 12 hares were hit by greyhounds, 1 hare was killed, 4 hares were injured and 1 hare was put down because of injuries. Kilkenny's Springhill Court hotel, which is also part of the Brennan group, had stated in a coursing booklet advert: "the best of luck to Sevenhouses coursing club".

"It is incredible that a modern hotel chain unashamedly associates with an animal cruelty activity which causes injury and death to hares," we stated in an email to the company. "It is surprising that you don't take into consideration the fact that businesses which back animal cruelty risk being shunned by potential customers among the majority who oppose bloodsports."

 ACTION ALERT 

Please join us in appealing to the Brennan Hotels group to act with compassion and fully disassociate its hotels from coursing cruelty.

Sales and Marketing Director
Brennan Hotels Group
Email Via: www.brennanhotels.com/form/contact

Clonmel Park Conference, Leisure & Spa Hotel
Clonmel, Co. Tipperary
Tel: +353 52 6188700
Email: info@clonmelparkhotel.com
Leave a comment on the Clonmel Park Conference, Leisure and Spa Hotel Facebook Page

Dear Sir/Madam, I am contacting you to register my disgust at the Clonmel Park Conference, Leisure and Spa Hotel's for publicising cruel hare coursing on its website - http://www.clonmelparkhotel.com/clonmel.htm As you may be aware, hares used in coursing are snatched from their habitats, kept in captivity for months and forced to run for their lives in front of greyhounds. They suffer fear, stress and injuries such as broken bones. Every coursing season, hares die painful deaths in this horrendous activity. Please show compassion for Ireland's persecuted hare species and stop publicising cruel coursing on your website. I eagerly await your reply. Yours sincerely, [Name/Location]

20 Man in court for disturbing Balbriggan seagull nest

Man will avoid jail for disturbing a seagull’s nest and eggs if he gives money to children’s hospital
Irish Independent, January 07 2013

A filling station owner, who has admitted to disturbing a seagull’s nest and three eggs, has been given a chance by a judge to escape prison sentence.

Colin Hughes was told by District Court Judge John O’Neill that if he paid Eur500 to the Crumlin Children’s Hospital he would consider striking out the two charges of disturbing and removing the nest and eggs.

Mr Hughes today denied he destroyed the nest. Judge O’Neill stroke out a third charge of destroying the birds’ habitation, which was on the roof of his Texaco store, Dublin Street, Balbriggan, Co Dublin.

National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) conservation ranger, Kieran Buckley, said he received a complaint last May about a herring gull’s nest and eggs having been destroyed.

He told the prosecution solicitor that the nest with three eggs had been thrown away. Two eggs had been smashed.

Mr Hughes, who represented himself, said he was unaware herring gulls were an endangered and protected species.

He told Judge O’Neill he had called an air conditioning company after he noticed his store was extremely hot and chocolate bars had softened on the shelves.

The court heard that Mr Hughes had been on the roof and removed the nest after being told that it was partly blocking the vent. He said he was under pressure to get the store back to a normal temperature.

Judge O’Neill, hearing that the offences were punishable each with a Eur1,000 fine and/or a three months imprisonment, said Mr Hughes, who had no previous conviction, had felt he had no other option than to remove the nest.

He said he would strike out the charges if Mr Hughes paid Eur250 for each of them, bringing the total sum to Eur500, to Crumlin Children’s Hospital. He adjourned the case.

- Saurya Cherfi

21 Animal Writes - The collected letters of John Fitzgerald

Read a compilation of some of John Fitzgerald's letters to the editor at http://www.scribd.com/doc/118695741/Animal-Writes

22 Animal groups dealing with abandoned hunting dogs

Struggling animal welfare groups are being left to take care of hunting dogs that have been lost or abandoned in the countryside, the Irish Examiner has reported.

The January 07, 2013 edition of the paper outlined that the beagles and lurchers - from hunting groups or poachers - find their way to nearby towns and villages where they are picked up by rescuers.

"Eventually they seem to migrate into towns, probably through hunger, with the result that almost every village seems to become home to one or sometimes more of these poor lost dogs," Carol Mansfield of Lily’s Dog Rescue in Co Cavan was quoted as saying.

"When we get a call from a concerned member of the public about a possible hunting hound, my heart drops a little," she added, referring to the difficulty of finding them homes.

Louth ISPCA inspector Fiona Squib told the Examiner that hunt dogs are found wandering the countryside, "usually they need feeding up".

She said that a couple of dogs she had last year were found wandering in fields. "They were in dire need of care as they were covered in lice and needed worming as they had been scavenging," she said. Among the dogs she has had to deal with are lurchers that "have been used in hare hunting and badger baiting."

23 Featured Video: Dublin vixen nurses cubs

Beautiful video footage captured in Dublin showing a vixen nursing her cubs. ICABS has passed a link to the video on to Minister Coveney as part of our appeal to him to protect foxes from bloodsports barbarity. View the video at http://youtu.be/ycpvBVS4Xgc

24 Cats killed in University Hospital Galway cull

Hospital's wild cat cull over flea bites on hold
Irish Independent January 01 2013

Wild cats at a Galway hospital are to be given a reprieve after a HSE decision to cull the animals was put on hold.

Management at University Hospital Galway implemented the cull of feral cats in a bid to bring a flea outbreak at the hospital under control.

Last month it emerged that the HSE West had brought in a pest control company to capture and destroy feral cats at the hospital. More than 15 cats were killed within the first few days of the cull.

However, the move was met with outrage by animal welfare groups. The HSE has now held a meeting with a number of groups and is considering alternative solutions to get the outbreak under control.

A spokesperson for the Galway Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (GSPCA) said it had met HSE representatives in a bid to end the cull and put forward alternatives.

The cats were targeted after the hospital suffered an outbreak of fleas last month which led to a number of staff being bitten.

The outbreak occurred in the outpatient department. An investigation discovered that the bites were being caused by cat fleas.

A statement from the HSE said the animals were being "humanely put down" if rehousing was not possible. A HSE spokesman said the hospital was taking the steps because it had a "responsibility to ensure the safety and well-being" of patients and staff.

- Caroline Crawford

25 Pregnant Irish deer to be shot

Hunters will be demonised
Irish Daily Star 7th January 2013

Hunters have blasted a Government plan to allow pregnant deers to be shot - saying it will merely demonise them.

The National Parks and Wildlife Service has proposed extending the shooting of female deers into April, when many of them are close to giving birth.

The National Association of Regional Game Councils has written to Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney saying the plan "will cause a public outcry".

The letter states: "It will demonise stalkers and wildlife rangers and the minister, and very likely impinge on the consumption of venison."

 ACTION ALERT 

Send complaints to

National Parks & Wildlife Service
7 Ely Place, Dublin 2
Email: nature.conservation@ahg.gov.ie
Tel: +353-1-888 3242
Fax: +353-1-888 3272

26 "Bullfighting is dying out": Spanish Tourist Board Director

The director of the Spanish Tourist Board in Ireland has said that bullfighting is dying out in Spain. Mr Gonzalo Ceballos made the comments on today's Pat Kenny radio show.

In response to a question from Pat Kenny, Mr Ceballos said: "I would say that bullfighting as an activity is dying out."

He said, however, that there are "lots of people" who continue to support bullfighting as "some cultural activity".

"Is there any reaction against that from the general public - you know, animal cruelty and all that," Pat Kenny asked.

"I would say yes," Mr Ceballos replied. "People are concerned with what happens to the animals, especially from the government. We are concerned about what is a perception of that. The fact is we avoid mentioning wherever an animal is slaughtered, we avoid having it as a fiesta and don't declare it as an interesting thing to do."

 ACTION ALERT 

Contact the Spanish Ambassador to Ireland to register your opposition to bullfighting. Express your desire to see bullfighting banned throughout all of Spain.

The Spanish Ambassador to Ireland
Embassy of Spain
17A Merlyn Park
Dublin 4.

Email: emb.dublin@maec.es
Tel 1: +353 (0)1 2691640
Tel 2: +353 (0)1 2692597
Fax: +353 (0)1 269 1854

27 A tribute to lifelong anti-bloodsports campaigner, Hilda Allen

The following tribute to a lifelong campaigner against blood sports appeared in the Irish Times of December 24th 2012...

Appreciation: Hilda Allen

A woman who played a major role in the campaign against blood sports for over three decades has passed away.

Hilda Allen (nee McCawley) of Blackrock, Dublin, died of heart failure on November 24th, aged 93.

Hilda became involved with the Irish Council Against Blood Sports shortly after its formation in 1966. Her husband Sean was Irish Council Against Blood Sports chairman and Hilda was equally devoted, as Treasurer and Executive Committee member, to the wildlife protection cause.

Hilda grew up in Rathmines. In her teens, a motor bike rolled over her left foot on a beach, resulting in amputation below the knee. But she never allowed this to diminish her zest for life. She worked for many years with Mitchell’s, the wine merchants, in Kildare Street, later taking up freelance typing as a career.

After her marriage to Sean Allen, an ESB accountant, the couple moved to Dun Laoghaire. Hilda was a great socialite. Though she had no children, she also had no shortage of friends. Her interests ranged from debating societies to a love of theatre and gardening. But her main preoccupation outside working hours was the campaign.

Despite her disability, she travelled to pickets all over the country, carrying a placard outside fields in the depths of winter in remote country districts. She might stop for a rest now and then, but she insisted on continuing until the picket dispersed.

Among her friends and fellow campaigners were comedienne Maureen Potter, actor Desmond Perry (of RTE’s 1960s drama series Tolka Row), and actor John Cowley, of RTE’s The Riordans.

She was a gifted organiser, and her ability was tested to the utmost in 1976 when ICABS launched a national anti hare coursing petition.

Hilda devoted enormous energy to the task, coordinating the nationwide initiative. Months passed, and ICABS counted the signatures. These exceeded 100,000, at the time the largest petition in the history of the State.

She always sought to strike an optimistic note, and she predicted that some day, if not in her own lifetime, a courageous government would ban hare coursing.

She did live to see the otter hunting ban in 1990, and, a full twenty years after, the abolition of carted stag hunting.

Special friends Ron, Fran, John, and Bunny miss her, as do her two Mongolian carers Mogi and Gilda, who lived above her house and developed a close friendship with Hilda, enabling her to continue living at home.

I suspect that the warmth of Hilda’s reception on the "Other Side" would have corresponded roughly to the final tally of the 1976 petition:

A hundred thousand welcomes.

- John Fitzgerald

28 California Law Bans Hunting Hounds

Source: The Huffington Post, January 7, 2013

Beginning Jan. 1 it became illegal to use packs of dogs to chase, corner, and ultimately shoot down bears and bobcats in California. Backers of the law say it’s not only unfair to the hunted animals but also potentially dangerous and borderline abusive to the dogs.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed SB 1221 into law in September, banning the use of hounds to hunt bears and bobcats, the Huffington Post reported. The practice involves unleashing packs of trained dogs to track down, chase, and tree bears. Once cornered, hunters can then shoot the animals.

Seventeen states still permit the use of dogs to hunt bears, while 15 ban hunting hounds. In the remaining 18 states, it is illegal to hunt bears at all. In California, bear hunting season was closed early when the allotted number of licensed kills — 1,700 — was reached. Preliminary data puts the number of those kills tracked by dogs at less than half.

It is a sport with a long, robust history, and hunting enthusiasts argue that the new ban impedes on a legacy of tradition. They claim they much prefer the chase aspect of the hunt, and that bears and bobcats are often released.

The Humane Society of the United States believes otherwise, and supporters of the bill maintain that it is intended to protect not only California’s bear and bobcat populations, but the hunting dogs as well. Using a pack of dogs to run down another animal can be seen as unfair, and once a bear or bobcat is in a tree, it’s not a shot a hunter is likely to miss. What’s more, in confrontations between dogs and game, dogs are often mauled or thoroughly exhausted by the hunt. When it comes to hound hunting, it seems that all animals involved face unnecessary risk and abuse.

The sport is similar to English fox hunting, which was banned in different parts of the United Kingdom.

29 Blood sports groups on Facebook

Spotted a bloodsports profile on Facebook? Please report it as a breach of Facebook's Community Standards which state that "sharing any graphic content for sadistic pleasure is prohibited" - http://www.facebook.com/communitystandards

Please sign the petition - Add report option "Animal Abuse" on Facebook at http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/add-report-option-animal-abuse-on-facebook.html

Send a letter of complaint to Facebook's Dublin office. Demand that those involved in animal cruelty are prevented from using Facebook to network.

Facebook European Headquarters
Hanover Reach,
5/7 Hanover Quay,
Dublin 2
Tel: 01 5530550

30 Letters to Editors

Blood sports not glamorous at all
Sunday Independent, January 13 2013

Madam – I have to congratulate Fiona O'Connell, on her article (Sunday Independent, January 6, 2013) on foxhunting. It was very true, every word she said, people making glamour out of a cruel pastime in the name of sport. I am 81 and have never condoned blood sports.

I remember seeing a TV programme many years ago on badger baiting. A man belted a badger to death with a shovel. And to my amazement there was a priest at it. I had occasion a few days later to talk to a Christian brother and told him how upset I was and surprised to see a priest there. Do you know his answer? "Why worry about it, it was only an animal." Sorry, but l lost my rag with him, and told him he was nothing but a hypocrite, professing to be religious and condoning such animal brutality. Thanks again Fiona for your wonderful article.

Ronnie Thompson, Dublin, 12

Ban Coursing in Bad Weather
Tipperary Star, 24 January 2013

Dear Editor,

The hare coursing season is into its final weeks, and again the hares of Ireland have been forced to "perform" in the most appalling weather conditions.

I ask: Is it not enough that these gentle, inoffensive creatures are violently netted in fields, bogs and woodland all over Ireland, and even on tranquil, uninhabited offshore islands…snatched from their natural habitats, confined in crates, and kept in captivity for weeks or months?

Is it not enough that they must then undergo the stress and terror of being hounded by pairs of greyhounds, and that many of them (as confirmed by National Parks and Wildlife reports obtained under FOI) are forcibly struck, mauled, pinned down, tossed into the air, battered into the ground or otherwise injured? Or that they may succumb to an stress-related ailment known as Capture Myopathy, which can kill them shortly after coursing even if they escape physically unscathed?

Is it not enough to expect hares to go through all that for "sport" without also compelling them to entertain us humans in heavy rainfall; waterlogged fields, hail storms, snowfall, and mud-saturated ground? YouTube abounds with videos of such events.

I notice that the fans filmed are suitably attired in snug winter clothing, some of them swigging from whisky flasks or sipping mugs of steaming soup. What a pity they can’t seem to empathise with the contrasting plight of the hare.

Three months ago, Maureen O’ Sullivan TD tabled a Dail question to Minister for Arts and Culture, Jimmy Deenihan, who has responsibility for licensing coursing clubs. She specifically raised the issue of hares being coursed in severe weather and asked him if would act to end this practise.

In response, the Minister promised he would consider introducing an extra licensing requirement to protect hares in those situations. However, three months later, coursing events are still being held in conditions that would force the cancellation of almost any other type of sporting fixture.

Though I favour a total ban on hare coursing, I hope that the Minister will find the compassion and decency to at least prohibit the coursing of hares in the circumstances I have described.

It’s not a huge concession for the coursing clubs to make: To lay off the unfortunate hares when the weather is bad!

John Fitzgerald Campaign or the Abolition of Cruel Sports

Enclosed hare coursing
The Irish Times, December 28, 2012

The festive season is always marred by an upsurge in the number of enclosed coursing events, with hundreds of these timid and defenceless creatures being forced to run for their lives.

Each hare, after being snatched from its natural home in the countryside, will be subjected to the terror of live baiting. The really unlucky ones will be mauled or maimed when forcibly struck by the dogs. The brittle-boned creature tends not to survive fractures and other internal injuries.

It faces a greater challenge this season due to a decision by several coursing clubs to hold three-day meetings, thus adding an extra day to their baiting sessions.

In theory, a hare will be coursed only once each day, but now many more hares will have to risk horrific injury three days in a row.

And the animals must perform in all weathers. Since the present season opened in late September, they have been coursed in muddy or water-logged fields and even hailstorms, as clearly borne out by videos of the "sport" posted by fans on YouTube.

It is bad enough that the Government proposes to exempt hare coursing from prohibition under the new Animal Health and Welfare Bill.

On top of that retrograde step, it is allowing coursing clubs to play what amounts to a form of Russian roulette with the hares.

Successive opinion polls reveal that a big majority of the Irish people favour a ban on this blood sport. But so far the politicians have failed to act. They continue to turn their backs on a gentle creature that enhances our natural environment and that threatens neither man nor beast.

The backwoodsmen have had their day...many days...of stomach-churning cruelty. It’s time to give the hare a break and call off the dogs.

John Fitzgerald
Lower Coyne Street, Callan, Co Kilkenny

31 Campaign Quotes

"Among other issues we discussed [on CKLR Radio] was the appalling attack by hounds of the Carlow Hunt on a little terrier, a family pet. Time to ban fox hunting, it's barbaric." Cllr Malcolm Noonan (Green Party), January 2013

"I totally and absolutely agree with ICABS on this." Cllr Gerry Ashe (Labour Party) in response to an ICABS report in which we highlighted the barbarity of foxhunting and the danger posed to wildlife and pets - http://www.scribd.com/doc/121981437 (January 2013)

"You can be assured that you have my full support." Cllr Pat Kavanagh (Fis Nua) Wicklow Town, January 2013

The new year for our lure coursing will commence on Sunday 14th October at the usual venue, Bellewstown Racecourse, Co. Meath. Sign-in will be at 11.30 am and racing will start at 12 midday sharp. Thereafter race meetings will be held on the second Sunday of every month, weather permitting. from the Irish Wolfhound Society Of Ireland website.

Hundreds of well wishers attended a candlelit vigil for an elk shot dead in a residential area. The bull elk, a regular visitor to Mapleton Hill in Boulder, Colorado, was shot dead on New Year's Day. Mourners attended the vigil to pay respects to the large animal, whom they lovingly nicknamed "Big Boy". They shared stories of the well-known creature and gathered around a memorial tree - a Christmas tree adorned with baubles and a framed picture of the elk. The elk was aggressive at times but well loved in the community. His shooting has shocked local residents and mystery surrounds precisely how it died. from Hundreds turn out for candlelit vigil of dead elk - as police suspend officer who shot it, Yahoo News, 8th January 2013

Thousands of Irish greyhounds are destroyed each year. Bord na gCon (The Irish Greyhound Board) has admitted that 8,000 dogs die each year due to "natural wastage" i.e. injuries and diseases. This figure does not include the initial cull of young dogs that are not registered. Greyhounds are a very healthy breed and would normally live to be at least 14 years old. Of those who do not make it to the racetrack, many are destroyed each year with some abandoned or sold on as "poor quality" dogs at the many greyhound auctions held at the greyhound tracks all around Ireland. from the Limerick Animal Welfare website http://www.limerickanimalwelfare.ie

"As a rural dweller I can say that I am delighted to see foxes occasionally transiting my property. People who keep poultry need to learn how to erect a proper fence. Serious poultry farmers do and foxes are as irrelevant to them as they are to me. As for lamb losses, as one other commentator stated, this is greatly exaggerated; a ewe is far bigger than a fox and well capable of protecting a healthy lamb." Martin, Irish Times website, 11th January 2013.

"In the countryside, foxes are seen as a menace..." Really? And it goes downhill from there. I think humans robbing old ladies in remote cottages are far more of a menace. Foxes harm no one." Seosamh, Irish Times website, 13th January 2013.

"Country singing legend Jimmy Buckley, who is an avid greyhound supporter, talks about his own gra for coursing and his love affair with Clonmel." from the Irish Coursing Club website, January 2013

"Ireland is home to 28 species of land mammal, over 400 species of birds, more than 4,000 plant species and over 12,000 species of insect" from the National Parks and Wildlife Service website. http://www.npws.ie/protectedsites/

"Hares are not snatched from the wild. They are netted in a very particular way with nets that have been designed over many hundreds of years by people competent in that particular activity." DJ Histon, CEO, Irish Coursing Club, on Limerick FM, January 16, 2012.

"Hyper RTE host Hector O hEochagain is in hot water with animal lovers over his latest show. The Animal Rights Action Network said it was "disgusted and sickened" with the red-mopped presenter after he went chasing foxes in Hector Goes Hunting. And Hector got both barrels from the Irish Council Against Blood Sports, who accused him of giving viewers "a propaganda-filled version of hunting, far removed from the blood-soaked reality" The Irish Sun, 30th January 2013

"Tonight on the box we had an incredibly awful program on hunting. A deliberately misleading fox hunt for the cameras which was laughable...All set up for Hector to put his spin on it...Very one-sided. The programme makers should have approached the anti-hunt campaigners and presented a balanced view. There is another side that wasn't shown. Hector was led up the garden path. It misled the general public." Comments left online in response to RTE's "Hector Goes Hunting".

32 Petitions

Ban Blood Sports in Ireland Now

Ask An Taoiseach Enda Kenny to Ban Hare Coursing

Stop sponsoring hare coursing in Ireland

Coillte - Ban hunters from your forests

Bishop Bill Murphy: Stop clergy involvement in cruel coursing

End Cruel Blood Sport of Fox Hunting in Ireland

Stop DoneDeal Selling Animals

Tell AVIVA Ireland not to Promote Greyhound Racing in Advertisements

Stop badger culling and focus on a vaccination programme in Ireland

Stop Oscar nomination of Spanish bullfighting movie

Don't Show Bullfights on Public TV!

Ban the use of animals in Irish circuses

Ask Amazon to stop selling cruel traps

Say NO to the cruel Toro de Fuego ("bull on fire") event in Spain

Protect Elephants from Ivory Poaching

Stop Bear Farming In Asia

1 Million to Ban the Lion Trade

The horror of Tesco selling live, packaged turtles in their supermarkets

Lift Ban on Animal Charities Fundraising at Dunnes Stores

Add report option "Animal Abuse" on Facebook

Top ways you can help the campaign

Top ways you can help the campaign
•	Join our email list and respond to our Action Alerts
•	Become a campaign supporter and make a donation to help fund our efforts
•	Contact your local politicians and ask them to support a ban on blood sports
•	Be our friend on Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Twitter and Youtube
•	Sign up for our free text alert service and receive occasional campaign updates to your phone
•	Link to our website and display one of our banners
•	Monitor blood sports meetings in your area and provide us with photos, video and reports.
•	Write a letter to your local newspaper about the cruelty of blood sports
•	Sign and collect signatures for our petitions
•	Organise a fund-raiser to help raise funds for the campaign
•	Set up an online anti-blood sports group (Myspace, Bebo, Facebook, etc) to cover your area.
•	Download, print and display our posters and leaflets
•	Set up an information stand at your school/library/youth group/adult group, etc
•	Introduce your friends to our website and encourage them to get involved.
•	Simply keeping your ear to the ground. about any blood-sport related incidents in your area.

Keep hunters off your land

Make it known publicly that your land is off-limits to hunters. Place a preservation notice in your local newspaper now. Here is a sample notice that you may wish to use: "Take notice that all my lands at [Insert address(es) of land] are private and preserved day and night. All forms of hunting and shooting are strictly prohibited. Trespassers will be prosecuted. Signed [Insert name(s) of landowner]" For more information, click on Farmers at www.banbloodsports.com

Tune in to the ICABS Channel

Footage of blood sport cruelty and the humane alternatives can be viewed on the ICABS Channel on Youtube - www.youtube.com/icabs or by clicking on "Videos" at www.banbloodsports.com Please ask your local TD/Senator to view our videos and back a blood sports ban.

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Make a donation to ICABS

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