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Shame on Klass Oil, GAIN, DNG Duncan Auctioneer Mullingar, Annebrook House Hotel, The Athlone Bookshop and McNamee Tyres for advertising in a Westmeath Fox Hunt calendar.
The ads appear in the 2024 calendar for the bloodsport group which terrorises and kills foxes across County Westmeath.
“We are writing to express our absolute disgust at the presence of an ad for your company in the 2024 Westmeath Fox Hunt calendar,” the Irish Council Against Blood Sports stated in a message to the businesses. “It is appalling that given the obscene animal cruelty involved in fox hunting, you would choose to associate with it.”
During hunts, foxes are chased to exhaustion and when caught by the pack of hounds, they are knocked off their feet, attacked, bitten, eviscerated and pulled apart. When a fox attempts to find refuge underground, the hunt's terriermen are called in and they send a terrier down the hole. The cowering fox is cornered and attacked by the terrier while the hunters dig the clay away from above. The fox is then pulled out and brutally killed.
Westmeath Foxhunt cruelty has been well documented. For example, a fox was chased into the freezing water of a canal twice during a hunt, a fox was chased by 29 hounds before being caught and “chopped”, a fox was chased for over 40 minutes, two foxes were dug out of the ground and killed - a tail and tongue were cut off the animals. See below for more details.
No business should associate with fox hunts - not only due to the animal cruelty but also the fact that the vast majority of the Irish public are in favour of a ban on fox hunting. A RED C opinion poll commissioned by the Irish Council Against Blood Sports found that a 77 per cent majority want fox hunting banned (with just 12 per cent disagreeing with a ban).
BOYCOTT BUSINESSES WHICH SUPPORT FOX HUNTING OR ANY OTHER FORM OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS.
TAKE ACTION
Contact the businesses to express your disgust.
Klass Oil
(incorporating Hamill Oil, Flynn Fuels, Harmon Oil)
Tel: +353 (0)1 539 07 80
Email: info@Klassoil.ie; info@hamilloil.ie
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/flynn.fuels
Annebrook House Hotel
Tel: 044 93 533 00
Email: info@annebrook.ie
DNG Duncan Auctioneer
(DNG is a nationwide property company and DNG Duncan is their Mullingar branch)
Tel: 044 934 8384
Email: vanessa@dngduncan.com
Tel DNG Head Office: (01) 491 2600
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/douglasnewmangood/
Email: facebook@dng.ie
CC: Keith Lowe - Chief Executive – DNG: Officekeithlowe@dng.ie
The Athlone Bookshop
Tel: 085 755 3307
Email: athlonebookshop@gmail.com
McNamee Tyres (Mullingar)
Tel: 087 694 4677
Email: jjmcnamee@mcnameetyres.ie
GAIN horse feeds
Tirlan, Ballymahon Road, Mullingar
Tel: 044 934 22 99
Gain Head Office
Tel: (056) 883 6600
Email: info@gainequinenutrition.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GAINequinenutrition
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GAINpetnutrition/
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/irish-news/top-hunt-probed-in-cruelty-claim/26333741.html
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.” Caption on a Westmeath Foxhunt photo shared on the hunt’s Facebook page, February 2015.
SEE ALSO
Bloomfield House Hotel again urged to stop hosting foxhunt events
https://banbloodsports.wordpress.com/2022/12/19/bloomfield-house-hotel-again-urged-to-stop-hosting-foxhunt-events/
EXPOSED: Business donors at Westmeath Foxhunt auction
https://banbloodsports.wordpress.com/2022/12/30/exposed-business-donors-at-westmeath-foxhunt-auction/
Supervalu supermarket in Mullingar sponsors foxhunt reception
https://banbloodsports.wordpress.com/2020/02/28/supervalu-supermarket-in-mullingar-sponsors-foxhunt-reception/