Renewed appeal to Realex to stop facilitating sale of tickets to animal cruelty event
08 December 2015

The Irish Council Against Blood Sports is renewing an appeal to online payment company, Realex, to show compassion for Irish hares and stop facilitating the sale of tickets to next year's coursing cruelty festival in Clonmel.

In an email to Realex and parent company, Global Payments Inc, ICABS stated: "Your companies are making the online sale of tickets to a 2016 hare coursing event possible by providing payment processing services to the Irish Coursing Club. Coursing is one of Ireland's worst forms of cruelty. Hares violently netted from the wild are forced to run for their lives in front of greyhounds. This is a bloodsport which a majority of Irish people are opposed to and which is illegal in most countries (including England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the United States)."

Realex disregarded an appeal last year for the company to disassociate from cruel coursing.

 ACTION ALERT 

Please join us in urging Realex and Global Payments Inc to show compassion for Irish hares and stop online payment services to coursers.

Mr Paul Garcia
CEO, Global Payments Inc

Email: paul.garcia@globalpay.com, investor.relations@globalpay.com, feedback@realexpayments.com, accounts@realexpayments.com
Tweet to @realexpayments @GlobalPayInc
Tweet to @RealexPayments @GlobalPayInc
Leave a comment on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/realexpayments

Tel (London): +44 (0) 20 3178 5370
Tel (Dublin): +353 (0) 1 702 2000

Photos from the hare coursing cruelty festival in Clonmel. Realex is facilitating the sale of tickets to this cruelty event.

 ACTION ALERTS 

Urge Minister Heather Humphreys to show compassion for the persecuted Irish Hare and withdraw the coursing licence she issued.

Email "Stop the cruelty. Permanently withdraw the hare coursing licence" to Heather.Humphreys@oireachtas.ie, ministers.office@ahg.gov.ie, taoiseach@taoiseach.gov.ie, joan.burton@oireachtas.ie, wildlifelicence@ahg.gov.ie, Gerry.Leckey@ahg.gov.ie
Tel: (01) 631 3802 or (01) 631 3800
Leave a comment on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/heather.humphreysfg
Tweet to: @HHumphreysFG
Tweet to @HHumphreysFG

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, I am one of the majority who want hare coursing outlawed. I am writing to urge you to permanently withdraw the licence you issued to the Irish Coursing Club. In coursing, hares suffer 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. Every season, hare injuries and deaths are documented. I ask you to please act on the wishes of the majority, show compassion and permanently revoke the licence. Yours sincerely, [Name/Location]

Express your support for a ban on coursing. Sign and share petitions

Stop Licensing Cruel Hare Coursing
https://www.change.org/p/minister-heather-humphreys-stop-licensing-cruel-hare-coursing

Save Irish hares from cruel coursing
https://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/minister-simon-coveney-replace-hare-coursing-with-drag-coursing

Ban horrific hare coursing cruelty in Ireland
https://www.change.org/petitions/taoiseach-prime-minister-of-ireland-support-a-bill-to-ban-the-cruel-practise-of-live-hare-coursing-in-ireland

Stop sponsoring hare coursing in Ireland
http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-sponsoring-hare-coursing-in-ireland

Appeal to the Minister for Agriculture to remove an exemption for hare coursing from the Animal Health and Welfare Act.

Simon Coveney, TD
Minister for Agriculture
Agriculture House,
Kildare Street, Dublin 2.

Email: Simon.Coveney@oireachtas.ie
Tel: 01-607 2884 or LoCall 1890-200510.
Fax: 01-661 1013.

Urgently contact An Taoiseach Enda Kenny and ask him to back a ban on hare coursing.

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

Contact all your local TDs now. Demand that they urgently push for a ban on hare coursing and all bloodsports. Tell them you are one of the majority who want coursing banned. Remind them that coursing is already illegal in Northern Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales. Urge them to respect the wishes of the majority of the electorate and back a ban.

Find out their contact details
Please also arrange a meeting with your TDs at their local clinics.

PREVIOUSLY: Realex urged to stop facilitating sale of tickets to animal cruelty event
19 December 2014

The Irish Council Against Blood Sports is calling on online payment company, Realex, to show compassion for Irish hares and stop facilitating the sale of tickets to an animal cruelty event.

"We are surprised and disappointed to note that you are making the online sale of tickets to a hare coursing event possible by providing online payment services to the Irish Coursing Club," we stated in our appeal.

We told the company that coursing is one of Ireland's worst forms of cruelty and that hares violently netted from the wild are forced to run for their lives in front of greyhounds.

"This is a bloodsport which a majority of Irish people are opposed to and which is illegal in most countries including England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the United States," we pointed out.

We also provided them with information about the victims of coursing and highlighted that painful injuries suffered by hares include broken bones and dislocated hips.

Videos: Ireland's hare coursing cruelty

A hare is hit into the ground at a JP McManus-sponsored coursing meeting at Limerick Racecourse.

The victims of coursing

All hares used in coursing are victims and they all suffer the fear and stress of being violently snatched from their habitats, thrown into crates, transported to coursing compounds and kept in captivity for months. Among the hare injuries and deaths recorded are:

• A hare "squealing in distress" after being caught by a muzzled dog
• A hare suffering with "a badly broken hind leg"
• A hare "carrying a hind leg"
• A hare with "a damaged hind toe"
• A coursed hare with a "badly broken hind leg [which] seemed to be in great distress"
• A hare in agony in a coursing enclosure with its leg "almost completely broken off".
• A hare destroyed by a vet after it was found suffering with a dislocated hip
• A hare that died "from knocks sustained during coursing"
• A hare released back into the wild with a "damaged leg" that "could be broken"
• A hare found dead in a coursing compound after succumbing to pneumonia.
• A vet treated three hares for "minor abrasions" and "witnessed three other hares that appeared to die after coursing without any outward signs of injury. One of these was sent to the local regional veterinary laboratory. Post-mortem findings included internal adhesions, suggestive of an old condition."
• Seven hares badly hit by greyhounds, with three dying as a result of the injuries.
• An injured hare with "marks on its back and bare areas".
• Two hares found dead in a coursing club paddock. An autopsy showed that one died from well established pneumonia while the other died from so-called "natural causes". Another died "during transportation from Loughrea to Westport."
• 13 hares hit by dogs and 1 put down because of injuries and 3 died from injuries. Veterinary opinion was that they died "from knocks sustained during coursing the previous day."

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