National Parks and Wildlife Service asked to remove hunting links
6 August 2010

The National Parks and Wildlife Service has been asked by ICABS to remove links to hunting licence forms from the homepage of its website http://www.npws.ie/en/ The links are to application forms for "Hunting Fauna in State-Owned Foreshore" and "Capture/Kill Protected Wild Animals for Educational or Scientific Purposes".

In our correspondence to the body, we commented that the links act as an advertisement for hunting and killing and possibly as an encouragement to apply.

"Given that the NPWS's primary role is to conserve wildlife and to engender in the public a respect for fauna, we believe it is inappropriate for links relating to the hunting, capturing and killing of animals to be on permanent, prominent display on the front page of your site," we stated.

The hunting-related links on the NPWS website. ICABS is asking for them to be removed from prominent display on its homepage.

 ACTION ALERT 

Ask the NPWS to stop prominently presenting links to hunting forms on its homepage

National Parks & Wildlife Service
7 Ely Place, Dublin 2 Email: natureconservation@environ.ie
(Please copy your message to Environment Minister John Gormley - minister@environ.ie)
Tel: 01-8882000. LoCall 1890-202 021. Fax: 01-8883272.

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 Sir/Madam, The NPWS's primary role is to conserve wildlife and to engender in the public a respect for fauna. On this basis, I believe it is inappropriate for links relating to the hunting, capturing and killing of animals to be on permanent, prominent display on the front page of your site. I urge you to relocate these links and replace them with links to literature about how people can help conserve our country's wildlife. Thank you. Yours sincerely, [Name/Location]