Hello once again. Just a wee update for you about this coring Sunday's Pig race... It seems that no matter how many signatures I get on this petition, unless you're from Arklow, The Arklow Seabreeze Festival Committee thinks your view point is irrelevant. Not only does this cut off any potential tourists, who might have come to Arklow and indeed this festival, if this race was cancelled, but it also sends a message to over 8,500 people, that Arklow wants to remain closed off to the rest of the world. Let me add, only I can see who has signed this petition..they have no access whatsoever to the locations of the signee's, so again another lie. Yes, there are a lot of people from around the world, who have signed and who don't need to physically witness animal cruelty to know it's cruel! But there are also thousands of signatures from Arklow people, who have grown up watching this shambles of a race and they have categorically said No to it....I've offered them a printout before, but they have ignored my messages. In this article, Arklow Seabreeze Festival blatantly lie about the reaction online (their Facebook group, I'll post the link below) and say they have received an overwhelming response from the Arklow people and they want the race to stay. This simply is not true, and it's there on their facebook page, loud and clear, the majority of comments called for the race to end. how they can sit there straight faced and lie like that...well I couldn't do it that's for sure. The head of the ISPCA Andrew Kelly, also commented on their FB page and contacted them directly to voice his concerns and he absolutely opposes all pig races. Our local Sinn Fein TD John Brady also contacted the Seabreeze committee and asked them to remove this event from their lineup. Arklow Seabreeze Committee, have said vets are behind them, and also they've received some unwanted negative abuse because of this campaign, and again they've shown no proof whatsoever of either of these two things. In short, Arklow Seabreeze Festival continue to ignore the towns people, the professionals, the politicians and you good people around the world, who want this race axed. I think at this stage, nothing I can say or do will get this race stopped. But I will plug on anyway. If you're from Arklow, and have signed this petition.....here's a link to their FB page, and just scroll to the discussion about the pig race. Clearly, if you're not from Arklow, they don't want to hear from you...ol Hicksville sticks to their own kin! https://www.facebook.com/Arklow-Seabreeze-Festival-224167300956646/