“The legislators that permit and even encourage this barbarism are as culpable as the ones who pull the triggers or gleefully watch dogs rip into our wildlife” - Read John Fitzgerald’s Letter to the Editor in this week’s Avondhu....
Dark Side of the Festive Season
Letter to the Editor, The Avondhu, 5th January 2023
Dear Editor,
It’s been a pleasant Christmas for many of us, challenging for many others. But for the creatures of field and forest it’s been a living nightmare because, unfortunately, the festive season witnesses an upsurge in recreational killing and tormenting of wildlife.
How sad that some humans can’t let this time of year go by without subjecting animals that are already struggling to survive in their humble and increasingly threatened habitats to unrelenting persecution.
They need that peculiar buzz they get from blasting pheasants out of the sky or at almost point blank range on the ground; or corralling captive hares into compounds and then setting dogs on them for “sport”; or mounting a horse to chase a single fox across country for miles with a baying pack of hounds.
What gives joy to a human participant in this cruelty brings only terror, suffering, or an agonized death to the creatures that find themselves on the butt end of the “fun.”
With all the talk about saving our biodiversity and fostering awareness of our wonderful (and rapidly disappearing) wildlife heritage, you’d think that such “sports “would by now be unconscionable.
The legislators that permit and even encourage this barbarism are as culpable as the ones who pull the triggers or gleefully watch dogs rip into our wildlife.
It’s time we put an end to this so-called “field sport.” It brings nothing but blood and shame to our proverbial “forty shades of green”.
John Fitzgerald,
Callan, Co. Kilkenny
ACTION ALERT
Contact the leaders of Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, the Green Party, Sinn Fein and Labour to tell them that you want fox hunting, hare coursing 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
Twitter: 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/
Urge Ministers Darragh O’Brien and Malcolm Noonan to stop the shooting of pheasants and all birds.
Minister Darragh O’Brien (Fianna Fail, Dublin Fingal)
Tel: (01) 618 3802 OR (086) 251 9893
Email: minister@housing.gov.ie; darragh.obrien@oireachtas.ie; natureconservation@housing.gov.ie; WildlifeLicence@housing.gov.ie
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DarraghOBrienTD
Twitter: http://twitter.com/DarraghOBrienTD
Malcolm Noonan TD (Green Party, Carlow Kilkenny)
Minister of State for Heritage
Tel: (01) 888 2425 OR (01) 618 3156
Email: mos@housing.gov.ie; malcolm.noonan@oireachtas.ie
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/votemalcolmnoonan1/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/noonan_malcolm
SEE ALSO:
The cruelty of pheasant shooting
https://youtu.be/TpJHS5FDd-k