Congratulations to Queen legend and animal rights activist, Brian May, who has just been voted the Greatest Rock Guitarist of All Time.

Brian came out on top this month in a poll carried out by Total Guitar magazine.

“I don’t take this accolade to mean anything except a large number of guitarists did me the honour of declaring that the way I play guitar moved them more than any other player,” he said in response to the announcement. “It’s a nice little game to play, and I’m very grateful for the outcome and grateful to Total Guitar. But the nicest thing about guitar playing is that there is no ‘greatest’. We all bring different things to it, even when we are beginning.”

Brian is one the most high profile defenders of animals and is among those calling for a ban on Ireland’s cruel hare coursing. Reacting to ICABS tweets, he condemned coursing as "a disgusting so-called sport that belongs in history", adding that "only barbaric sub-humans could call hare coursing a sport"

A long-time campaigner against bloodsports, he has also denounced barbaric foxhunters, stating: “Hunting and killing animals for pleasure boggles my mind. I don't understand why people are like that. It's a sickness. I don't think a healthy human being needs to be killing or causing pain to be happy.”

A founder of the Save Me Trust which campaigns against foxhunting and badger culling, he has been a leading figure in efforts to stop the UK’s badger cull which he condemned as “a tragedy and unnecessary crime against wildlife”.

It was an issue he highlighted during an appearance on RTE’s The Late Late Show in March 2013.

In 2017, he appealed to authorities in Macau to allow greyhounds at the notorious Canidrome track to be transferred to an animal rescue group. “The Canidrome of Macau is infamous the world over, with a reputation of being the cruellest greyhound track in existence,” he wrote in a letter co-signed by bandmate Roger Taylor. “The current cycle of suffering and death that is happening at the Canidrome of Macau goes against our shared values.”

In 2011, Brian paid tribute to ICABS founding member, Dick Power: "I'd like to pay tribute to this amazing man, whose courage and humanity shines out like a beacon, proving that the countryside does not have to be cruel," he wrote on his blog. "I love looking at this man's face, in the picture, and wish so much I had met him. You look into his eyes, as I have looked into the eyes of so many farmers now, and country people, and you wonder how his mind works. He could be just another man who was content to carry in just as his forbears did, and his neighbours, and turn a blind eye to things that 'didn't seem quite right'. But he listened to his own feelings about what is right, and what isn't, and had the courage to speak up against what he knew was cruel and unacceptable behaviour.”

More recently, he has called for an end to horse racing, describing it as “just another cruel selfish sport which, in a humane world, now needs to be dismantled”.

In the past he has also spoken out against fur farming, saying “there’s appalling cruelty in the production of fur.”

ACTION ALERT

Please urgently contact Fine Gael leader, Leo Varadkar, and ALL party TDs and urge them to include a ban on bloodsports in the Programme for Government.Tell them that their stance on bloodsports and other animal cruelty issues will affect your future voting decisions.

An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar
Government Buildings,
Upper Merrion St, Dublin 2
Telephone: +353 (0)1-6194020
Email: taoiseach@taoiseach.gov.ie; leo.varadkar@oireachtas.ie; finegael@finegael.ie
Tweet to: @LeoVaradkar
Leave a comment on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/LeoVaradkar

Fine Gael TDs

JohnPaul.Phelan@oireachtas.ie,Heather.Humphreys@oireachtas.ie,joe.carey@oireachtas.ie,david.stanton@oir.ie,colm.burke@oireachtas.ie,michael.creed@oireachtas.ie,Simon.Coveney@oireachtas.ie,joe.mchugh@oireachtas.ie,richard.bruton@oireachtas.ie,Eoghan.Murphy@oireachtas.ie,Paschal.Donohoe@oireachtas.ie,Alan.Farrell@oireachtas.ie,emer.higgins@oireachtas.ie,neale.richmond@oireachtas.ie,josepha.madigan@oireachtas.ie,colm.brophy@oireachtas.ie,leo.varadkar@oireachtas.ie,jennifer.carrollmacneill@oireachtas.ie,Ciaran.Cannon@oireachtas.ie,hildegarde.naughton@oireachtas.ie,Brendan.Griffin@oireachtas.ie,bernard.durkan@oireachtas.ie,Martin.Heydon@oireachtas.ie,charles.flanagan@oireachtas.ie,kieran.odonnell@oireachtas.ie,Patrick.O'Donovan@oireachtas.ie,peter.burke@oireachtas.ie,fergus.odowd@oireachtas.ie,alan.dillon@oireachtas.ie,michael.ring@oireachtas.ie,helen.mcentee@oireachtas.ie,damien.english@oireachtas.ie,frank.feighan@oireachtas.ie,paul.kehoe@oireachtas.ie,Simon.Harris@oireachtas.ie

Please sign and share the petitions

Ireland - Ban cruel hare coursing
www.change.org/p/ireland-ban-cruel-hare-coursing

Irish Government: Stop Giving Millions of Euro to Cruel Greyhound Racing
https://www.change.org/p/irish-government-stop-giving-millions-of-euro-to-cruel-greyhound-racing

Witness the cruelty of hare coursing in Ireland
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRkXOvbUPNNjMc6LShwiiXBfnDAPbykf

Witness the cruelty of fox hunting in Ireland
http://www.banbloodsports.com/camp-fh.htm