The shameful exemptions in the Animal Health & Welfare Act which allow cruel coursers to terrorise hares with greyhounds and allow hunters to release packs of hounds to chase foxes http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2013/act/15/enacted/en/print#sec12
Section 12 of the Act, which deals with prohibition on animal cruelty, states that “a person shall not (a) do, or fail to do, anything or cause or permit anything to be done to an animal that causes unnecessary suffering to, or endanger the health or welfare of, an animal, or (b) neglect, or be reckless, regarding the health or welfare of an animal”.
However, the same section of the Act goes on to exempt the cruelty carried out by hunters and coursers, stating “Nothing in this section applies in relation to anything which occurs in the ordinary course of...lawfully hunting an animal, unless the animal is released in an injured, mutilated or exhausted condition, or lawfully coursing a hare, unless the hare is hunted or coursed in a space from which it does not have a reasonable chance of escape.”
Hares captured by coursers for use in their bloodsport suffer the fear and stress of being held in captivity and forced to run for their lives. When caught and hit by the unleashed greyhounds, they sustain painful injuries such as broken bones and dislocated hips. When hunters and their hounds catch up with fleeing foxes, the dogs attack and tear the unfortunate foxes apart.
There should be no place for this barbarity in modern Ireland.
Join us in urging Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue and the government to remove these exemptions from the Animal Health and Welfare Act so that hares and foxes can finally live free from animal cruelty.
Charlie McConalogue
Minister for Agriculture
Tel: (01) 618 3199
Email: charlie.mcconalogue@oireachtas.ie
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CharlieMcConalogue
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/@McConalogue
Micheál Martin, Taoiseach
Email: micheal.martin@oireachtas.ie; info@fiannafail.ie
Phone: +353 (0)1–618 4350 or +353 (0)21-432 0088
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michealmartintd/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/@MichealMartinTD
Leo Varadkar, Tánaiste
Telephone: +353 (0)1-640 3133
Email: leo.varadkar@oireachtas.ie; finegael@finegael.ie
Tweet to: @LeoVaradkar
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LeoVaradkar
Eamon Ryan TD
Leader, Green Party
Tel: 01 618 3894
Email: eamon.ryan@oireachtas.ie
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EamonRyanGP/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EamonRyan
Witness the cruelty of hare coursing in Ireland
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRkXOvbUPNNjMc6LShwiiXBfnDAPbykf
Witness the cruelty of foxhunting at
http://www.banbloodsports.com/videos.htm
Keep hunters off your land
If you are a landowner, make your land off-limits to hunters. Find out more about how to do this on our Farmers/Landowners Page - http://www.banbloodsports.com/farmers.htm
Please support our campaign with a donation
https://www.paypal.me/banbloodsports