“Whiddy Island in Bantry Bay has taken a severe reputational hit due to its link with the horrific practice of live hare coursing.” Read John Fitzgerald’s Letter to the Editor in this week’s Southern Star and join calls for a ban on cruel hare coursing...
Make Whiddy Island a sanctuary for hares
Southern Star, January 3rd, 2020
SIR – I hope 2020 will prove a better year for Whiddy Island. In recent times that picturesque haven of tranquility in Bantry Bay has taken a severe reputational hit due to its link with the horrific practice of live hare coursing.
No praise would be too loud or lavish for Whiddy, with its lovely walkways, idyllic scenery and its dreamy rock pools … all framed by the breathtaking picture postcard mountains of the Beara peninsula to the north and the Sheep’s Head peninsula to the south.
What a pity that one of its other premier attractions, the island’s hare population, has also drawn the attention of hare coursers. Not only are hares captured on the island and removed to the mainland in little boxes to be used as bait in coursing, the animals are not even safe on the island itself, as shown in the RTÉ Investigates programme last June.
Unregulated coursing events are frequently held on Whiddy, with terriers used to flush the hares from cover so that the greyhounds can chase them.
Hare coursing at any venue is bad enough, a cruel sport in which timid creatures are terrorised or injured for the amusement of misguided human beings. But it is surely unthinkable that this blot on our society is being allowed to stain the cultural and scenic magnificence of Whiddy Island, one of the jewels in the crown of Ireland’s tourist industry.
Let 2020 be the year when the island is declared a sanctuary for hares and the discredited coursing connection is relegated to the pages of history.
John Fitzgerald,
Campaign for the Abolition of Cruel Sports,
Callan, Kilkenny
https://www.southernstar.ie/news/letter-make-whiddy-island-a-sanctuary-for-hares-4198674
WATCH: Cruel hare coursing on Whiddy Island - “RTE Investigates: Greyhounds Running For Their Lives”
https://www.facebook.com/banbloodsports/videos/335466624024685/
SEE ALSO
"The continued legality of hare coursing and its encroachment into beauty spots such as Whiddy Island in Cork projects a negative and deeply shameful image of our culture" - Thanks to Douglas Post magazine for highlighting the cruelty of hare coursing https://www.facebook.com/banbloodsports/posts/1848950265220523
What a shame that even on an island that lists nature watching as a tourist attraction, the Irish Hare is not safe from persecution https://www.facebook.com/banbloodsports/posts/1823234907792059
ACTION ALERT
With warnings from wildlife experts that the Irish Hare is in trouble, it is now more clear than ever that the species must be given FULL PROTECTION - no hare coursing, no hare hunting, no hare shooting. Urgently contact Minister Josepha Madigan and the National Parks and Wildlife Service and demand that they revoke the 2019-20 hare coursing licence and end all forms of hare persecution.
Josepha Madigan
Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht
Phone: +353 (0)1 631 3800
Email: josepha.madigan@oireachtas.ie, ministers.office@ahg.gov.ie
Leave a comment on Facebook:
https://facebook.com/JosephaMadiganFG
Tweet to: @josephamadigan
John Fitzgerald
Director, National Parks and Wildlife Service
Phone: +353 (0)1 888 3242
Email: john.fitzgerald@ahg.gov.ie; wildlifelicence@ahg.gov.ie, Gerry.Leckey@ahg.gov.ie, nature.conservation@ahg.gov.ie
SAMPLE LETTER
(If you have time, please compose your own personal letter. Otherwise, feel free to send the short sample letter below)
Dear Minister Madigan,
I am one of the majority who want hare coursing outlawed. I am writing to demand that you revoke the 2019-20 hare netting licence that has shamefully been issued.
In coursing, hares suffer and die at all stages - during the capture, during the time they are kept in captivity and during the coursing meetings where they run for their lives in front of greyhounds. Among the injuries recorded are broken legs, damaged toes and dislocated hips.
I ask you to please act on the wishes of the majority, show compassion and end this cruelty.
Thank you.
Yours sincerely,
[Name/Location]
It’s time for the Irish Government to respect the wishes of the vast majority and finally ban cruel hare coursing. Email "Ban cruel hare coursing" to leo.varadkar@oireachtas.ie; finegael@finegael.ie
An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar
Government Buildings,
Upper Merrion St, Dublin 2
Telephone: +353 (0)1-6194020
Email: taoiseach@taoiseach.gov.ie; leo.varadkar@oireachtas.ie; finegael@finegael.ie
Tweet to: @LeoVaradkar
Leave a comment on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/LeoVaradkar
Fine Gael
51 Upper Mount Street
Dublin 2
Tel: 01 619 8444
Email: finegael@finegael.ie
Tweet to @FineGael
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/FineGael/
Email “Ban cruel hare coursing” to all Fine Gael TDs
maria.bailey@oireachtas.ie; sean.barrett@oireachtas.ie; pat.breen@oireachtas.ie; colm.brophy@oireachtas.ie; richard.bruton@oireachtas.ie; peter.burke@oireachtas.ie; catherine.byrne@oireachtas.ie; Ciaran.Cannon@oireachtas.ie; joe.carey@oireachtas.ie; corcorankennedy@eircom.net; Simon.Coveney@oireachtas.ie; michael.creed@oireachtas.ie; michael.darcy@oireachtas.ie; Jim.Daly@oireachtas.ie; john.deasy@oireachtas.ie; Pat.Deering@oireachtas.ie; Regina.Doherty@oireachtas.ie; Paschal.Donohoe@oireachtas.ie; andrew.doyle@oireachtas.ie; bernard.durkan@oireachtas.ie; damien.english@oireachtas.ie; Alan.Farrell@oireachtas.ie; frances.fitzgerald@oir.ie; peterm.fitzpatrick@oireachtas.ie; charles.flanagan@oireachtas.ie; Brendan.Griffin@oireachtas.ie; Simon.Harris@oireachtas.ie; Martin.Heydon@oireachtas.ie; Heather.Humphreys@oireachtas.ie; paul.kehoe@oireachtas.ie; enda.kenny@oireachtas.ie; Sean.Kyne@oireachtas.ie; josepha.madigan@oireachtas.ie; helen.mcentee@oireachtas.ie; joe.mchugh@oireachtas.ie; Tony.McLoughlin@oireachtas.ie; Mary.MitchellOConnor@oireachtas.ie; Dara.Murphy@oireachtas.ie; Eoghan.Murphy@oireachtas.ie; hildegarde.naughton@oireachtas.ie; tom.neville@limerick.ie; michael.noonan@oireachtas.ie; kate.oconnell@oireachtas.ie; Patrick.O'Donovan@oireachtas.ie; fergus.odowd@oireachtas.ie; JohnPaul.Phelan@oireachtas.ie; michael.ring@oireachtas.ie; noel@noelrock.ie; david.stanton@oir.ie; leo.varadkar@oireachtas.ie
Email “Ban cruel hare coursing” to all Fianna Fáil TDs
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Email “Ban cruel hare coursing” to all Labour Party TDs
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Email “Ban cruel hare coursing” to all Sinn Fein TDs
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Sign and share the petitions
Ban Bloodsports in Ireland
https://www.change.org/p/ban-blood-sports-in-ireland
Sinn Fein: Support a ban on cruel hare coursing
https://www.change.org/p/sinn-fein-support-a-ban-on-cruel-hare-coursing
Save Ireland’s hares from extinction
https://www.change.org/p/prime-minister-of-ireland-save-ireland-s-hares-from-extinction