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Letter Writing Campaigns - July 2002
Welcome! Welcome to the July 2002 edition of the Irish Council Against Blood Sports' letter writing campaign appeal! Thanks and well done to everybody who responded to our last set of appeals. Your efforts have helped get a long overdue response from Acorn Life who had been placing an advert in the Mallow coursing club booklet for the past few years. According to Acorn Life's Chief Executive, Gerard O'Connell: "It is against the policy of Acorn Life to support any form of cruelty but I accept on this occasion that our name has been associated with the Mallow event. I apologise for the hurt this has caused and assure you that as a company we do not support events of this kind." Statoil also responded positively to correspondence regarding an advert placed in the Mallow coursing club booklet by a local dealer. Martina Byrne, Manager of Statoil PR and Public Affairs stated: "Since we received your letter, we have discussed the matter with our legal advisors and we are currently exploring the feasibility of future dealer agreements to include matters in relation to the use of the Statoil logo in advertisements." Please respond to as many of the appeals below as possible and you will play a part in helping to stop the suffering of animals. Thank you all for your continued help. Best wishes till next time.
Philip Kiernan
PS ICABS has a new postal address - PO Box 88, Mullingar, Co Westmeath. Current Appeals
During the World Cup, Eircom glamorised bullfighting by using images of a matador torturing a bull to publicise Ireland's game against Spain. A half page Eircom advert in both the Irish Independent and the Irish Times displayed a matador wearing an Irish football jersey waving a red cape in front of a bleeding bull. In using this theme of a matador (the Irish team) being pitted against Spain (the bull), Eircom has turned a blind eye to the cruelty of one of the world's most barbaric blood sports.
Please contact Eircom's CEO and complain about this glamorisation of bullfighting. Point out how thousands of bulls are slowly tortured and killed in Spain's bullrings every year and how bullfighting has nothing whatsoever to do with real sports like football. Contact Details:
Philip Nolan
Email: amannion@eircom.ie (Philip Nolan's personal assistant) The Star glamorises bullfighting The Star Newspaper published an image on their front page in which Mick McCarthy's face was superimposed onto the body of a matador torturing a bull. Like the bull in the Eircom advert, this bloodied bull had the sharp spiked "banderillas" embedded in its shoulders and a look of sheer terror on its face.
By comparing the Irish team manager to an animal abuser, The Star has done a disservice to the sport of football, to Mick McCarthy, and to the team as a whole. It is an insult to compare real sports people with torturers who mete out horrific cruelty to innocent animals. Please write to the Star and ask them not to glamorise bullfighting in this way again. Also suggest that they publish an article on the cruelty of bullfighting in an effort to redress the balance. Contact Details:
The Editor
Tel: 01-4901228.
The following two hotels are allowing rooms to Barnardo Furriers for fur fashion shows, etc. Please write to the managers and appeal to them to stop accommodating those involved in the cruel fur industry. Contact Details:
Limerick Ryan Hotel
Tel: 061-453922.
Jury's Hotel Cork
Tel: 021-4274477.
Please write to your local TDs and appeal to them to work towards a ban on blood sports in Ireland. Click on this link for full TD listings. We are continually updating the political section of this webpage so if you receive a reply which reveals a TD's attitudes to blood sports, please forward a copy to us. Thank you. Contact Details:
Dáil Éireann
Tel: 01-618 3000 OR 1890 337 889 (outside Dublin). Please write to Tony Blair and ask him to introduce legislation immediately to outlaw hunting with hounds in the UK. The majority of MPs in the House of Commons are in favour of a ban but we are still waiting! Contact Details:
Tony Blair
Website: www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page1.asp We are renewing our Coillte appeal and asking everyone to please get in touch with the forestry board again. As you will recall, last year Coillte gave in to pressure from foxhunters and re-issued a permit which allows hunters into around 30 square miles of forestry in Galway. The reason given by Coillte for granting the licence is that the foxhunters have traditionally hunted in the area. But we do not believe that this obliges Coillte to allow them access to their forests. Please contact Coillte and ask that forests in Galway and forests around the country are made off-limits to foxhunts. Urge them to show compassion for the creatures which live in their woods by keeping hunters out. Ireland’s wildlife need all the safe refuges it can get. Also, request that Coillte investigate claims that a hunt in Co Waterford trespassed into Gardenmorris Forest on St Patrick's Day, 2002. Contact Details:
Martin D Lowery
Tel: 01-6615666.
Bullfighting law is passed in Portugal A law has just been passed in Portugal which now makes it legal for bulls to be killed Spanish-style in the bullrings of certain villages. Up until now, it was against the law to kill the bull in the ring although authorities rarely enforced this. Earlier this year, the country's president - a bullfight fan - declared that the law should be changed to take into account that bullfighting is a "tradition". And on July 12th, the new piece of legislation was passed - 116 votes in favour, 92 votes against and 9 abstentions. According to campaigners in Portugal, this unfortunate development represents a backward step of 80 years for animal welfare.
Please write to the Portuguese Government to express your disgust and disappointment and demand that this new law be repealed. Contact Details:
Jorge Sampaio
Fax: 00351 213 614 611
Dr Durao Barroso
Fax: 00351 213 951 616
Please also send a copy of your message to the President of the Parliament and to the country's main political parties. The email addresses for all of these are:
The following two parties voted against the law. Please write and thank them for acting against blood sport cruelty.
Bloco De Esquerda: blocoar@ar.parlamento.pt
Send a copy to anti-bullfighting group, Movimento Anti-Touradas de Portugal, who are working for an end to bullfights in Portugal:
Donegal Democrat gives positive publicity to foxhunting In June, the Donegal Democrat newspaper gave a new local hunt the opportunity to present foxhunting as:
Please write a letter to the editor with an appeal to stop giving positive publicity to blood sports. Contact Details:
The Editor
Tel: (074) 28000.
Galway charity accepts hunt donation Galway's Beechwood Adult Day Service ignored appeals in March to reject funds raised by the Galway Blazers Foxhunt. In our last letter writing appeal we asked you to contact manager, Elaine Kavanagh, and appeal to her to follow the good example set by several other organisations (including the Irish Cancer Society and the Alzheimer’s Society) and disassociate Beechwood from blood sports groups. We explained to her that donations from those who cruelly slaughter Irish wildlife amount to blood money and are part of a thinly disguised public relations exercise by hunts. And in this case, the exercise certainly worked - the hunt received front page coverage in a local newspaper. Please contact Beechwood and ask them to reject future offers of hunt donations. Contact Details:
Elaine Kavanagh
Tel: 091-522380. If you know of other organisations/charities who accept blood money from hunts, please let us know. According to an article in the Irish Field newspaper in March, the Fingal Harriers "hunted down the 11th fairway of Skerries Golf Course". Golfers apparently had to give way to hounds which were pursuing a hare and one golfer (local pro, Jimmy Kinsella) "quickly came to the rescue with an electric caddy car ready for the chase [to retrieve the hounds]". Please write to the management of Skerries Golf Course and encourage them to take action to stop future entries by hunters. Contact Details:
The Manager
Tel: 01-8491567.
Limerick store sells fur figurines A store with two branches in Limerick is selling cat and dog figurines which contain rabbit fur. Please write to the manager of Heirlooms and call for a permanent end to the sale of these items. Rabbits bred for fur are kept in deplorable factory farm conditions - they live a life of misery in tiny wire cages and at 7 months old their necks are broken. Many suffer injuries and psychological disorders during confinement. Contact Details:
Tony Hardaker
Tel/Fax: 061-419111. Vote NO to primate breeding farm in Spain A French corporation is planning to establish a primate breeding farm in Catalunya, Spain. The primates will be bred for use in cruel laboratory tests. Please vote NO to this on the online opinion poll at www.camarles.com. (On the right side of the screen you will see a box with the headline "Tortura"; select No and click on "Votar" to cast your vote). Subscribe to the ICABS Letter Writing Group If you would like the latest letter writing campaigns emailed to you, please |
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