Government Minister presents trophy at coursing meeting

Deenihan issues 2012-13 coursing licence
30 August 2012

ICABS has learned that Minister Jimmy Deenihan has issued a licence to hare coursers for another season of coursing cruelty.

Deenihan's licence allows the blood sports enthusiasts to net thousands of hares from the wild for use as live lures at around 91 coursing meetings around Ireland.

Shame on Jimmy Deenihan for turning a blind eye to the suffering of hares and allowing this shameful cruelty to continue.

Earlier this year, Deenihan pledged to coursers: "Whatever I can do for coursing while I am in this job, I will certainly do it."

Please join us in our calls on the Minister to revoke the licence and save hares from another season of suffering.

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
CC: An Taoiseach - taoiseach@taoiseach.gov.ie
Tel: +353 (0)1 631 3802
Fax: +353 (0)1 661 1201

Coursing cruelty: Northern Ireland versus Republic of Ireland
10 August 2012

The stark contrast between the bloodsports stances of a politician in Northern Ireland and one in the Republic of Ireland. In the North, coursing is illegal while here in the Republic, Minister for Arts and Heritage, Jimmy Deenihan has pledged that whatever he can do for coursing, he will do it.

SHAME ON DEENIHAN AND HOGAN
06 April 2012

Shame on Minister for Arts and Heritage, Jimmy Deenihan, who told hare coursers recently: "Whatever I can do for coursing while I am in this job, I will certainly do it."

Minister Deenihan made this disgraceful pledge at a coursing awards function at the Charleville Park Hotel on March 24th last, after announcing that the shooting of hares would be banned, to the delight of the coursers who see this as ensuring that more hares will be available for coursing. Minister Deenihan certainly wouldn't have bothered moving to ban the shooting of hares for the sake of the hares.

Meanwhile his ministerial colleague, Phil Hogan, was present at a coursing meeting in Sevenhouses, Kilkenny, where over the two days of coursing, 12 hares were struck by greyhounds, with one being killed and one put down because of its injuries. Minister Hogan was filmed presenting a trophy to coursing fans after the meeting - See www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsWX7_nsMLg&t=48s

"It is beyond belief in this day and age that Ministers of our government should be fraternising with and aiding and abetting those who engage in such barbarism," said Aideen Yourell of the Irish Council Against Blood Sports. "They are out of touch with the vast majority of people who abhor cruelty to animals. Hare coursing is now outlawed in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, leaving the Irish Republic as the last bastion of this backwoods barbarism. What planet do these Ministers live on? They should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves. It makes us, as a country, look like a crowd of barbarians!"

Please see our recent video footage showing hares being terrorised, hit and mauled

ACTION ALERT

Express your disgust to Minister Jimmy Deenihan and Minister Phil Hogan. Ask Fine Gael party leader and Taoiseach Enda Kenny to modernise his party's policy in relation to animal welfare and ban hare coursing.

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
CC: An Taoiseach - taoiseach@taoiseach.gov.ie
Tel: +353 (0)1 631 3802
Fax: +353 (0)1 661 1201

Phil Hogan, TD
Minister for the Environment
Tel: +353 (0)1 888 2403
Email: minister@environ.ie
(CC: enda.kenny@finegael.ie;policy@finegael.ie)

An Taoiseach, Enda Kenny
Department of the Taoiseach,
Government Buildings,
Upper Merrion Street,
Dublin 2
Telephone: 01-6194020
Fax: 01-6764048
Email: taoiseach@taoiseach.gov.ie

Phil Hogan "caught hares with us when he was young"
06 April 2012

The Environment Minister, Phil Hogan's shameful involvement in hare coursing has been exposed by the Irish Independent. A report quoted a Kilkenny courser as saying Hogan "caught hares with us when he was young".

"We'd net hares on the Hogan family farm," the secretary of Sevenhouses coursing club told the Independent. "He [Phil Hogan] caught hares with us when he was young."

The secretary went on to say that the club had a "long-standing relationship" with the Fine Gael minister and that they were delighted with his attendance at a coursing meeting in January and his presentation of awards to the winners.

ICABS has expressed disgust to Hogan after he was filmed presenting a trophy at the end of the coursing meeting during which 12 hares were hit, 1 died and another was put down as a result of injuries.

Government Minister presents trophy at coursing meeting
25 January 2012

ICABS has expressed disgust to Minister Phil Hogan after he was photographed presenting a trophy at a hare coursing meeting. The Minister posed with the cup for a winning greyhound which had earlier bashed into a hare and sent it tumbling head over heels.

"A Government Minister supporting a form of animal cruelty which is illegal in all neighbouring jurisdictions, reflects poorly on Ireland," we stated. "We urge you to respect the majority view among the electorate that coursing is unacceptable in the 21st century and should be urgently banned."

In a letter to Fine Gael Head Office, we commented that it was highly inappropriate for a Government Minister to be involved with an animal cruelty activity.

"Minister Hogan's presence at a coursing meeting sullies the office of the Minister for the Environment and is an insult to the majority of Irish citizens who want this deplorable activity banned," we stated.

Minister for the Environment, Phil Hogan, presenting a trophy at the Sevenhouses coursing meeting earlier this month.

A hare struggling to stay ahead of the pursuing greyhounds at Sevenhouses coursing meeting.

ACTION ALERT

Contact Minister Phil Hogan and ask him to stop associating with coursing cruelty. Tell him that you are one of the majority in Ireland who want the government to make coursing illegal.

Tel: +353 (0)1 888 2403
Email: minister@environ.ie
(CC: enda.kenny@finegael.ie;policy@finegael.ie)

ACTION ALERT

Contact Minister Jimmy Deenihan now and urge him to stop licensing hare coursing.

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 - taoiseach@taoiseach.gov.ie]
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 am one of the majority who want hare coursing outlawed. I am writing to urge you to stop licensing this blood sport and put in place permanent protection for the Irish Hare.
In coursing, hares suffer and die at all stages - during the capture, during the time they are kept in captivity and during the coursing meetings where they run for their lives in front of greyhounds. Among the injuries recorded are broken legs, damaged toes and dislocated hips.
I ask you to please act on the wishes of the majority, show compassion and bring coursing to an end in Ireland.
Thank you.
Yours sincerely,
[Name/Location]

Forward a copy of your correspondence to your local TDs:
Find out the name of your TDs and their email addresses.

Write to your TDs at:
Dáil Éireann
Leinster House
Kildare Street
Dublin 2.

Quotes: Phil Hogan and blood sports

Phil Hogan, TD (FG, Carlow Kilkenny):
Fine Gael environment spokesman Phil Hogan wrote to hunting associations in recent days, setting out the party's commitment to "oppose any change to existing licensing arrangements for stag hunting". The letter said that the party would "reverse any changes made by the present government in that regard" if it assumed government after the next general election. (From the Sunday Business Post, February 21, 2010)

"The Fine Gael Party is opposing every section of this legislation, including section 1 which sets out the definitions of the two Acts referred to in the Bill. We do not even agree that it should be entitled the Wildlife (Amendment) Bill." Wildlife (Amendment) Bill 2010: Committee and Remaining Stages, 29 June 2010 - http://www.kildarestreet.com/debates/?id=2010-06-29.475.0 Deputy Hogan voted against the Bill which banned staghunting.

"Fine Gael believes the hunt plays an important cultural and economic role in rural Ireland..."
Wildlife (Amendment) Bill 2010: Second Stage, 24 June 2010
http://debates.oireachtas.ie/DDebate.aspx?F=DAL20100624.xml&Ex=All&Page=9