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We must make it clear to politicians that saving birds and animals is an election issue. We need to let them know that, as a first tentative move towards safeguarding our wildlife from the cocktail of threats facing it (climate change and habitat loss mainly), we must end the man-made, human-directed scandal of “field sports” - Read John Fitzgerald's Letter to the Editor in the Avondhu and please scroll down for action alert...
Support biodiversity: ban "field sports!"
Letter, The Avondhu: April 9th 2023
Dear Editor
The report of the Citizens’ Assembly on Biodiversity Loss has been hailed by environmentalists as a ground-breaking document, but it remains to be seen whether it will compel government action to save what’s left of our ravaged wildlife heritage, or prove to have been the end-product of a well-meaning but ultimately ineffectual talking shop.
Those who put together the report were ordinary people, albeit guided by experts, but the final decisions on their recommendations will be made by politicians, many of whom are beholden to powerful lobby groups and will be mindful of the likely impact their response to the report will have at the ballot box. That’s how politics works, unfortunately.
What that means it that they won’t necessarily do what is required to address biodiversity loss. They may instead do, as they have done consistently down through the decades, what is politically expedient.
Right now, for example, the government still allows even birds that are on the endangered species list to be shot at certain times of the year if somebody offers a sufficiently convincing excuse for targeting them.
Small wonder that an estimated 63% of our bird populations are in decline. Apart from that, I believe we need to take a serious look at the notion of shooting birds for sport.
In driven shoots, semi-tame hand-reared pheasants are shot on the ground as they waddle up to their killers, trusting the approaching gunmen even as they riddle them with toxic lead. The magnificent pheasant with its multi-hued plumage is turned into a mangled clump of feathers and bleeding flesh just to satisfy a silly whim.
We allow that, promoting it as legitimate recreation, and then wonder why there’s a lack of respect for wildlife?
Some of the politicians who’ll be mulling over the Biodiversity Loss Report will be the ones who condone or encourage hare coursing and fox hunting. Again, how can those in leadership expect to be taken seriously, or their half-hearted “save our wildlife” message to be acted on, if they see nothing wrong with setting dogs on foxes and hares for a laugh?
Like the birds on the endangered species list, hares are supposedly protected - except when the politicians allow the politically well-connected coursing folk to trap thousands of them every year to be chased and terrorized.
Like the hare, the fox is a veritable symbol of our wildlife heritage. Yet it can be legally hounded to exhaustion and have the skin ripped off its bones. Its sad plight plays out in that same idyllic countryside embracing all that biodiversity that our leaders have pledged to save and nurture.
A government that allows the killing or torment of innocent birds and animals for fun is not likely to care about what happens to anything, or anyone… apart from those they depend on to re-elect them.
So, it’s up to us to make it clear to them that saving the birds and animals IS an election issue. We need to let them know that, as a first tentative move towards safeguarding our wildlife from the cocktail of threats facing it (climate change and habitat loss mainly), we must end the man-made, human-directed scandal of “field sports.”
John Fitzgerald,
Callan, Co. Kilkenny
ACTION ALERT
Contact Ministers Darragh O’Brien and Malcolm Noonan and demand that they stop the shooting of birds – or, at the very least, remove the amber- and red-list birds from the open season list. Encourage them to give full protection to all birds.
Minister Darragh O’Brien (Fianna Fail, Dublin Fingal)
Tel: (01) 618 3802 OR (086) 251 9893
Email: darragh.obrien@oireachtas.ie; minister@housing.gov.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) 618 3148 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
It is time for politicians to consign hare coursing and fox hunting to history. Join us in contacting all TDs and urging them to act to ensure that a ban is urgently introduced. Visit the Oireachtas website for contact details https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/tds/?term=/ie/oireachtas/house/dail/33
Contact the leaders of Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, the Green Party, Sinn Fein and the Labour Party to tell them that you want hare coursing and fox hunting banned.
Micheál Martin TD
Leader, Fianna Fail
Email: micheal.martin@oireachtas.ie; info@fiannafail.ie
Phone: 021-432 0088
Leinster House: 01–618 3000
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michealmartintd/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/@MichealMartinTD
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michealmartintd/
Leo Varadkar TD
Leader, Fine Gael
Telephone: 01-619 4020
Email: leo.varadkar@oireachtas.ie; finegael@finegael.ie
Tweet to: http://www.twitter.com/@LeoVaradkar
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LeoVaradkar
Instagram: https://www.instagram.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
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eamondryan/
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
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maryloumcdonaldsf/
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/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ivanabacik/
Please sign and share the petitions
Sinn Fein: Support a ban on cruel hare coursing
https://www.change.org/p/sinn-fein-support-a-ban-on-cruel-hare-coursing
Ireland – Ban cruel hare coursing
http://www.change.org/p/ireland-ban-cruel-hare-coursing
Please support our campaign with a donation
https://www.paypal.me/banbloodsports