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Renewed appeal to Buy & Sell to stop listing dogs used in blood sports
09 June 2009 Buy & Sell newspaper has again been urged to stop accepting adverts for dogs that may be used in the illegal blood sports of badger baiting and dog fighting. A spokesperson for paper said that recent ads for the "working dogs" had been published accidentally and that the company "will be addressing this issue from next week". According to a Sunday Times report (June 7, 2009), "The newspaper is being used by blood-sports enthusiasts to exchange dogs specially bred for use in badger baiting and dog fighting, according to animal-welfare organisations." Quoted in the report, Dublin SPCA spokesperson Orla Aungier said said the newspaper had promised to stop carrying ads for patterdale terriers, a breed used for baiting badgers, but they were appearing again. “We have told Buy & Sell that we were not happy to see terms like ‘working dogs’ being used to advertise patterdales, as it usually meant the dogs are being sold by people involved in illegal blood sports,” she said. “As far as the society is concerned, Buy & Sell should not be carrying advertisements for patterdale terriers, or any other dog for that matter. We also believe that some dogs offered for sale come from puppy farms. We would urge people never to buy a dog or puppy from the pages of Buy & Sell.” Stephen Philpott, chief executive of the Ulster SPCA, told the Sunday Times that “our investigations have shown time after time that criminals involved in organised blood sports, such as badger baiting and even dog fighting, often contact each other through adverts which they place in the Buy & Sell.”
You can read the full Sunday Times report at:
ACTION ALERT 1 - SAMPLE LETTER
ACTION ALERT 2 Please join the Irish Against Blood Sports' call on the Gardai to urgently establish a special animal unit to tackle illegal blood sports like cockfighting, badger baiting and dog fighting. Please email the following message to the Garda Commissioner and Minister for Justice:
Action Alert Poster: Please print and display Buy & Sell Newspaper: Drop Patterdale Ads! A4 Action Alert Poster: Please download and display now (pdf, 53 Kb).
More details about this action alert
Buy & Sell newspaper has been asked to stop listing adverts for Patterdale terriers. The call follows a Sunday Times report last month which revealed that some badger baiters are using the publication to advertise dogs used in the illegal activity. Buy & Sell has also been asked by the Irish Council Against Blood Sports to stop listing coursing dogs. In a letter to the company, ICABS stated: "By including such ads, Buy & Sell is, in some cases, unwittingly facilitating some of the country's worst animal cruelty." Brought to their attention was an extract from the Times report which outlined how the sale of the dogs used in badger baiting "is organised over the internet, by word of mouth, and in Buy & Sell, a weekly newspaper that carries classified ads. In some cases, advertisements which offer Patterdale dogs described as "working strain", are dogs that are being used for badger baiting."
The report referred to a man who placed an advertisement in Buy & Sell offering Patterdale puppies for sale. When approached by an undercover journalist, the man "spoke freely of his involvement in badger baiting, how he treated his terriers for the injuries they sustained in illegal fights, and how he often travelled to Co Meath to bait badgers with his friends." He went on to admit digging out a badger sett and finding a nursing badger and her cubs. 'They were only wee cubs and the dog killed one of them," he told the reporter. In our appeal to Buy & Sell, ICABS pointed to ads on their website for dogs that are listed as coursing breeds and as being good for coursing. We asked for such ads to be rejected in the future, highlighting the horrific injuries and death caused to hares during coursing.
Sunday Times exposes horrors of badger baiting in Ireland
Following a six-month undercover operation by journalist John Mooney, the Sunday Times has exposed the horrors of badger baiting in Ireland. The newspaper has found that, despite being illegal, badger baiting is "practised in almost every town in Ireland, both north and south" but that "there appears to be little or no enforcement of animal welfare and wildlife laws" in the Republic.
Please read the Sunday Times report at:
www.timesonline.co.uk
Video: badger baiting cruelty
Footage from Sunday Times undercover operation - filmed in Co Down
Make a donation to ICABS
The Irish Council Against Blood Sports relies entirely on the generosity of its supporters to continue campaigning for an end to blood sport cruelty. Please consider making a small donation today. For more details, please visit our campaign supporter page. Thank you.
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