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A former Fianna Fail town councillor has shamefully sponsored a trophy at a foxhunt dog show.
Jim Bourke was photographed in the Westmeath Topic newspaper (3 August 2023) handing over the trophy for the “Best Working Bitch”.
The Westmeath Foxhunt's “2023 Puppy Show” took place last month where “some top class young hounds were on show”.
A few weeks earlier, the hunt held a hound, terrier and lurcher show at Moate, County Westmeath. The show featured a “Digging Competition”. During foxhunts, terriermen use spades and shovels to dig down to where a terrified fox is cowering. The animals are attacked by hunt terriers and dug out and killed.
Jim Bourke was a Fianna Fáil councillor in Mullingar for ten years up until 2009 when he lost his seat. The Westmeath Examiner reported that his “political career came crashing to a sudden and unexpected halt” in a “shattering electoral defeat”.
Bourke, a businessman behind local VW and Skoda dealerships, previously appeared in the Westmeath Examiner in a photograph showing him on horseback during a Westmeath Hunt outing.
In 2005, ICABS highlighted that then Cllr Bourke called for soundproofing to be installed at a dog pound because the doomed creatures within were making too much noise.
"The noise coming from the dogs is getting to staff in offices close by," he was quoted as saying in a local newspaper report. "Is there any chance soundproofing could be installed?"
Westmeath Foxhunt cruelty has been well documented - see below for more details.
ACTION ALERT
Boycott businesses with connections to fox hunting.
A RED C opinion poll, commissioned by the Irish Council Against Blood Sports, shows that a 77% majority agree that the government should ban fox hunting. The poll found that just 12 per cent disagree with a ban on fox hunting. Tell politicians to respect the wishes of the majority and ban fox hunting.
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 fox hunting 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 fox hunting at
http://www.banbloodsports.com/videos.htm
https://youtu.be/cbLKs9pgQno
Please support our campaign with a donation
https://www.paypal.me/banbloodsports
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.
SEE ALSO
Westmeath foxhunt and animal cruelty
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqSDeSxRg9o
EXPOSED: Business donors at Westmeath Foxhunt auction
https://banbloodsports.wordpress.com/2022/12/30/exposed-business-donors-at-westmeath-foxhunt-auction/
Barbaric traditions can't be a legacy left to our young people
https://banbloodsports.wordpress.com/2023/07/15/cruel-fox-hunting-horrific-injuries-are-inflicted-on-both-fox-and-dog/