Young foxes are suffering terrible cruelty as barbaric cub hunting takes place around Ireland ahead of the start of another season of fox hunting.
In the early hours after dawn, hunters surround earths and flush out the resident foxes. They then release their waiting hounds to attack and kill the cubs. The doomed youngsters are mauled, bitten and pulled apart.
This merciless brutality is carried out to introduce new hounds to the taste of fox blood and to disperse foxes - the parents and siblings of targeted cubs are scattered so that their wider distribution will later provide a bigger hunting area.
The hunters refer to their shameful barbarity as 'Autumn hunting' but their euphemism doesn't disguise the fact that it's one of the Ireland's nastiest acts of animal cruelty.
To do this to an animal should be illegal but our legislators have so far refused to ban fox hunting. They disgracefully voted to ensure that an exemption for the bloodsport remained in the Animal Health and Welfare Act and they rejected a proposed amendment which sought to make foxhunting an offence. Without the exemption in the Act, foxhunters would be liable to prosecution for cruelty.
Cub hunting and fox hunting are totally unacceptable in modern Ireland and must finally be stopped. Please join us in contacting the government and demanding a long overdue ban on bloodsports.
ACTION ALERT
A RED C opinion poll, commissioned by the Irish Council Against Blood Sports, shows that a 77% majority agree that the government should ban foxhunting. The poll found that just 12 per cent disagree with a ban on foxhunting. Tell politicians to respect the wishes of the majority and ban foxhunting.
Contact the leaders of Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, the Green Party, Sinn Fein and Labour Party to tell them that you want fox hunting and all bloodsports banned.
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)1-704 3630 OR +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
Ivana Bacik TD
Leader, The Labour Party
Tel: (01) 6183136
Email: ivana.bacik@oireachtas.ie
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ivanabacik
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bacikivana/
Contact the Agriculture Minister and demand that the exemption for foxhunting is removed from the Animal Health and Welfare Act.
Charlie McConalogue
Minister for Agriculture
Tel: 01 618 3199 or 01 607 2000
Email: minister@agriculture.gov.ie; charlie.mcconalogue@oireachtas.ie
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CharlieMcConalogue
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/@McConalogue
Contact all your local TDs and urge them to push for a ban on foxhunting and all bloodsports. 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 at
http://www.banbloodsports.com/videos.htm
https://youtu.be/cbLKs9pgQno