Bloomfield House Hotel in Mullingar is again being urged to stop hosting foxhunt events.
Details of a planned February 2023 hunt ball at the hotel have been published on the Westmeath Foxhounds Facebook page. It confirms the venue as the Bloomfield House Hotel
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=521666309995414&set=a.458792086282837
Bloomfield House Hotel this month shamefully hosted a Westmeath Foxhounds fundraising auction and donated two lots for auction - 6 months gym membership and "Dinner for 2 in Bloomfield House Hotel Restaurant". Other lots in the auction included "one day's hunting for two people" with County Clare Hunt, Waterford Foxhounds, Meath Hunt, South Tyrone Hunt and Stonehall Harriers Hunt.
The hotel has hosted previous Westmeath Hunt balls, hunt AGM/EGM meetings, a January 2020 hunt auction and a Westmeath Foxhounds Cheltenham Preview event.
Bloomfield House Hotel management has been told about the cruelty of foxhunting. See below for more details. No business should associate with foxhunters - not only due to the animal cruelty but also the fact that the vast majority of citizens are in favour of a ban on foxhunting.
A RED C opinion poll commissioned by the Irish Council Against Blood Sports found that a 77 per cent majority want foxhunting banned (with just 12 per cent disagreeing with a ban).
ACTION ALERT
Urge Bloomfield House Hotel to stop hosting Westmeath Foxhunt events.
Bloomfield House Hotel,
Belvedere, Mullingar,
Co. Westmeath
Tel: +353 (0)44 934 0894
Email: info@bloomfieldhouse.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bloomfieldhousehotel
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BloomfieldHotel
Westmeath Foxhunt and Animal Cruelty
A 2011 Farmers' Journal report told of how 16 mounted followers of the Westmeath hunt, along with 29 hounds, found a fox that was caught and "chopped." Later on, another fox was "overhauled before he managed to put any distance between himself and them." Both "chopped" and "overhauled," in hunting terminology, mean that the fox was caught by the hounds and brutally killed.
Disturbing video filmed during a Westmeath Foxhunt in February 2015. The video shows a hunter calling his horse a C***, a hunter whipping her horse fives times and a horse falling backwards into a ditch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKk8midpn5Y
A report in the Irish Field (8 February 2019) detailed how several foxes were terrorised during a Westmeath Foxhounds hunt. The pack of hounds first found two foxes in a field of kale before “settling on one” and pursuing him. Another fox was chased and “marked” in a bog “after a nice crisp run of over 40 minutes”. In hunting terminology, “marked” refers to the pack of hounds catching up with the fox and baying loudly at the entrance to an earth or drain where the cowering creature is trying to find refuge. Surrounded by the hunters and hounds, this is a desperate situation for the fox. It often means death - foxes are flushed out with terriers or dug out by hunt terriermen before being killed.
In 2007, the Irish Independent reported that there was a probe into allegations that a rope was tied to the leg of a fox and that it was pulled out of a burrow and fed alive to hounds. See Irish Independent report https://www.independent.ie/.../top-hunt-probed-in-cruelty
A 2008 Irish Field report revealed that the Westmeath Hunt's hounds chased a fox into the freezing water of the Royal Canal: "The fox and the pack swam across the canal and continued along the banks to the Mullingar/Ballynacargy Road...the fox, with 9 hounds in pursuit, then swam the canal again"
A Westmeath Foxhounds hunt report in the The Irish Field documented the cruel practice of digging-out and the obscene ritual of cutting off the tails and tongues of foxes..."Terriers were some time in coming as followers were the wrong side of the wind for hearing. A quick dig followed and 2 foxes were dispatched. Eamon had a brush for Clarissa and a fox's tongue which he intends pickling in vinegar to cure warts and draw thorns."
"Plenty of foxes about who didn't want to run but hounds did their best on a pre-hunt ball day. Great night last night in the Bloomfield Hotel and plenty of sore heads this morning!" Caption on a Westmeath Foxhunt photo shared on the hunt's Facebook page, February 2015.