“Is Covid-19 to be replaced by the Cruelty Virus...or will enhanced awareness of our persecuted native fauna help to end what Oscar Wilde called the pursuit of the uneatable by the unspeakable?” - Read John Fitzgerald’s Letter in this week’s Avondhu...
Will new found affinity with nature survive lockdown?
Letter to the Editor, The Avondhu, 13 June 2021
While we bask in the glow of the gradual and eagerly awaited re-opening of society I wonder if we’ll benefit from any of the lessons of lockdown.
Among these was the realisation that there was a great, largely undiscovered countryside out there for us to explore. Denied so many other recreations, people took to the roads and the fields and were pleasantly surprised by the abundance of flora and fauna.
Hearts fluttered...eyes opened with delight at the sights and sounds of the natural world, to the joys of our proverbial Forty Shades of Green.
Some walkers noticed for the first time little rabbits playing in a field, as Padraig Pearse did more than a century ago. Foxes found themselves being hand-fed by humans who in many cases had never before seen this much-maligned creature up close. They were made welcome in towns and villages across the country.
Less common but an equally welcome sight was the occasional appearance of an Irish Hare, with its distinctive reddish brown coat; grazing untroubled in its natural habitat, zigzagging at dizzying speeds, or engaged in one of those hilarious pugilistic mating rituals.
Sadly, this new found affinity with nature hasn’t touched the hearts of the blood sport fraternity. They’re laying plans for a resumption of their attacks on our wildlife heritage, a resource they still see as something to be exploited and butchered for a cheap thrill.
The hares that enjoyed a happy respite will, come September; be snatched from their grassy domain and made to run for their lives. Instead of being observed at leisure and appreciated by nature lovers, they’ll be twisting and dodging on a coursing venue in front of a cheering mob.
Instead of being fed by a friendly human, the fox will encounter the downside of our species when it has to run from a pack of baying hounds urged by supposed pillars of society.
Is Covid 19 to be replaced by the Cruelty Virus...or will enhanced awareness of our persecuted native fauna help to end what Oscar Wilde called the pursuit of the uneatable by the unspeakable?
John Fitzgerald,
Callan, Co Kilkenny
ACTION ALERT
Contact the leaders of Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, Sinn Fein, Labour Party and the Green Party and tell them to act to ban fox hunting and hare coursing.
Micheál Martin
Leader, Fianna Fail
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
Leader, Fine Gael
Telephone: +353 (0)1-640 3133
Email: leo.varadkar@oireachtas.ie; finegael@finegael.ie
Tweet to: http://www.twitter.com/@LeoVaradkar
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LeoVaradkar
Eamon Ryan
Leader, Green Party
Tel: 01 618 3894
Email: eamon.ryan@oireachtas.ie
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EamonRyanGP/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EamonRyan
Mary Lou McDonald TD
Leader, Sinn Fein
Tel: (01) 727 7102
Email: marylou.mcdonald@oireachtas.ie
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MaryLouMcDonald
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/MaryLouMcDonaldTD
Alan Kelly TD
Leader, Labour Party
Tel: 067 34190
Email: alan.kelly@oir.ie
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alankellytd/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/alankellylabour
Contact all your local TDs and urge them to push for a ban on foxhunting. Visit the Oireachtas website for names of TDs and their email addresses http://www.oireachtas.ie/members-hist/default.asp?housetype=0&HouseNum=33&disp=mem
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
Witness the cruelty of foxhunting and hare coursing at
http://www.banbloodsports.com/videos.htm
Please support our campaign with a donation
https://www.paypal.me/banbloodsports