Across Ireland, animals of all kinds - domestic, agricultural and wild - find themselves on the receiving end of man’s inhumanity. Ireland is close to being the cruelty capital of Europe - Read John Fitzgerald's Letter in the Southern Star...
We must examine relationship with animals
Southern Star, 17 July 2023
Viewers were left shocked and reeling from the footage aired on Monday night’s RTÉ Investigates programme.
It’s not easy for most people to watch calves being kicked, slapped, and knocked about at marts or to learn of the long sea journeys from Ireland during which these docile, trusting animals endure unthinkable stress and torment.
Unfortunately, what we saw on the programme represents only a small part of a bigger and more sinister picture. Ireland is close to being the cruelty capital of Europe, though still in second place behind Spain, with its bullfighting and animal torture fiestas.
Across the nation, animals of all kinds … domestic, agricultural, and wild find themselves on the receiving end of man’s inhumanity. We are one of only seven countries in the world that allow greyhound racing, an industry that regards dogs as commodities and treats them worse than the unfortunate calves in the documentary. In some cases animals are abandoned when their running days are over.
But Ireland goes further than the other six countries that still have this ‘sport’. It receives State funding here to ensure that it continues even with track attendances at a record low.
And, as if to put Ireland in contention for ‘cruellest nation award’, the industry encompasses hare coursing, which is almost unknown beyond our shores. At 70 venues nationwide, hares are terrorised in broad daylight for a cheap thrill.
You can see the animals being flung into the air, a bit like the calf we saw casually tossed screeching from a truck in the RTÉ footage.
Foxes are hounded until the dogs rip the skin from their bones ... driven pheasant shoots are staged at which the semi-tame birds waddle up to their killers to be blasted ... and intensive farming methods involving pigs and fowl involve a degree of unnatural confinement and suffering that should provoke as much such outrage as the RTE expose.
We need to reappraise our relationship with the animal kingdom. These creatures share the earth with us. They have nervous systems like us. They feel pain, and even the pangs of grief and loneliness, as we do.
We at least owe it to them not to make their short, humble lives a veritable hell-on-earth.
John Fitzgerald,
Callan, Co Kilkenny
https://www.southernstar.ie/letters/letters-to-the-editor-2-4268197
Watch RTÉ Investigates: Dairy’s Dirty Secret
https://www.rte.ie/player/movie/rté-investigates-dairy-s-dirty-secret/418643496038