Good riddance to cruel fur farming: Hare coursing should now follow fur farming into the dustbin of history - Read John Fitzgerald’s Letter to the Editor in the Laois Nationalist...
GOOD RIDDANCE TO FUR FARMING
Laois Nationalist, November 20, 2020
Dear Editor,
While saddened by the prospect of a mink cull to prevent a worsening of the Covid 19 Pandemic, I welcome the fact that this will hasten the demise of a cruel practice that should have been banned decades ago.
Mink are not native to Ireland, and belong in the wide open countryside and the waterways; not cooped up in cages waiting to be dragged out after a few miserable months of confinement, to be gassed.
Fur farming is one of those activities that have fallen victim to Covid 19 and it won’t be missed by anyone with even a scintilla of compassion for animals. Another should be hare coursing. Already, the season has been suspended until December 1st and more than 1,200 hares have been released from captivity in coursing compounds nationwide.
Those of us campaigning for wildlife protection believe that coursing should go the way of fur farming. The hare is a solitary creature, unaccustomed to the conditions it finds itself in once captured: confined for several weeks in a paddock or compound with dozens of other hares. Captivity is itself deeply stressful and unnatural for the animal, and hares can literally die of fright when faced with aggressive manhandling by humans.
They don’t belong in cages, large or small, and being chased by dogs in a contrived environment with hundreds of howling gamblers gathered around is far removed from its natural setting, despite idiotic claims that this activity resonates with the workings of nature.
Conservationists have dubbed our native hare the flagship of Irish biodiversity. It is one of our truly endemic mammals, a sub-species of the Mountain Hare unique to Ireland and a survivor of the last Ice Age of 10,000 years ago that may been around for eons of time before that.
Having braved millennia of human and animal predation, and loss of habitat resulting from urbanisation and the downside of modern agriculture, this great survivor finds itself at the butt end of this joke that calls itself a sport.
Hare coursing had no place in the 18th century let alone the 21st. It should now follow fur farming into the dustbin of history.
John Fitzgerald
Lower Coyne Street
Co. Kilkenny
https://laois-nationalist.ie/2020/11/20/letter-to-the-editor-good-riddance-to-fur-farming/
ACTION ALERT
Hare coursing has been halted until at least the beginning of December due to Level 5 Covid19 restrictions. If you are aware of any hare coursing activities taking place in your area, contact the local Gardai - find contact details at https://www.garda.ie/en/Contact-Us/Station-Directory/ - and the NPWS - LoCall 1890 383 000 / Email: nature.conservation@chg.gov.ie
Join us in urging Heritage Minister Darragh O’Brien and Minister of State Malcolm Noonan to make the licence suspension permanent and to dismiss any request for a licence extension.
Minister Darragh O’Brien (Fianna Fail, Dublin Fingal)
Tel: (01) 618 3802
Email: darragh.obrien@oireachtas.ie; minister@housing.gov.ie
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DarraghOBrienTD
Twitter: http://twitter.com/DarraghOBrienTD
Malcolm Noonan TD (Carlow Kilkenny)
Minister of State for Heritage
Tel: (01) 6183148
Email: malcolm.noonan@oireachtas.ie
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/votemalcolmnoonan1/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/noonan_malcolm
Join us in contacting all TDs and urging them to act to ensure that a ban on coursing is urgently introduced. Visit the Oireachtas website for contact details for TDs https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/tds/?term=/ie/oireachtas/house/dail/33
Urge Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tanaiste Leo Varadkar to respect the wishes of the majority and ban hare coursing and all bloodsports.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin
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
Tanaiste Leo Varadkar
Telephone: +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
Contact Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, Green Party, Sinn Fein and Labour Party TDs and urge them to back a ban on cruel hare coursing.
Fianna Fail TDs
john.mcguinness@oireachtas.ie; niamh.smyth@oireachtas.ie; brendan.smith@oireachtas.ie; aindrias.moynihan@oireachtas.ie; michael.moynihan.td@oireachtas.ie; micheal.martin@oireachtas.ie; michael.mcgrath@oireachtas.ie; Charlie.McConalogue@oireachtas.ie; sean.haughey@oireachtas.ie; jim.ocallaghan@oireachtas.ie; darragh.obrien@oireachtas.ie; jack@jackchambers.ie; anne.rabbitte@oireachtas.ie; eamon.ocuiv@oireachtas.ie; james.lawless@oireachtas.ie; sean.ofearghail@oireachtas.ie; sean.fleming@oireachtas.ie; barry.cowen@oireachtas.ie; willie.odea@oireachtas.ie; niall.collins@oireachtas.ie; Robert.Troy@oireachtas.ie; dara.calleary@oireachtas.ie; thomas.byrne@oireachtas.ie; marc.macsharry@oireachtas.ie; jackie.cahill@oireachtas.ie; mary.butler@oireachtas.ie; james.browne@oireachtas.ie; jennifer.murnaneoconnor@oireachtas.ie; cathal.crowe@oireachtas.ie; james.oconnor@oireachtas.ie; padraig.osullivan@oireachtas.ie; christopher.osullivan@oireachtas.ie; paul.mcauliffe@oireachtas.ie; john.lahart@oireachtas.ie; cormac@cormacdevlin.ie; normafoley1@eircom.net; joe.flaherty@oireachtas.ie; Stephen.Donnelly@oireachtas.ie
Fine Gael TDs
JohnPaul.Phelan@oireachtas.ie; Heather.Humphreys@oireachtas.ie; joe.carey@oireachtas.ie; david.stanton@oir.ie; colm.burke@oireachtas.ie; michael.creed@oireachtas.ie; Simon.Coveney@oireachtas.ie; joe.mchugh@oireachtas.ie; richard.bruton@oireachtas.ie; Eoghan.Murphy@oireachtas.ie; Paschal.Donohoe@oireachtas.ie; Alan.Farrell@oireachtas.ie; emer.higgins@oireachtas.ie; neale.richmond@oireachtas.ie; josepha.madigan@oireachtas.ie; colm.brophy@oireachtas.ie; leo.varadkar@oireachtas.ie; jennifer.carrollmacneill@oireachtas.ie; Ciaran.Cannon@oireachtas.ie; hildegarde.naughton@oireachtas.ie; Brendan.Griffin@oireachtas.ie; bernard.durkan@oireachtas.ie; Martin.Heydon@oireachtas.ie; charles.flanagan@oireachtas.ie; kieran.odonnell@oireachtas.ie; Patrick.O'Donovan@oireachtas.ie; peter.burke@oireachtas.ie; fergus.odowd@oireachtas.ie; alan.dillon@oireachtas.ie; michael.ring@oireachtas.ie; helen.mcentee@oireachtas.ie; damien.english@oireachtas.ie; frank.feighan@oireachtas.ie; paul.kehoe@oireachtas.ie; Simon.Harris@oireachtas.ie
Green Party TDs
Eamon.Ryan@greenparty.ie; catherine.martin@oireachtas.ie; patrick.costello@oireachtas.ie; francisnoel.duffy@oireachtas.ie; neasa.hourigan@oireachtas.ie; brian.leddin@oireachtas.ie; steven.matthews@oireachtas.ie; malcolm.noonan@oireachtas.ie; joe.obrien@oireachtas.ie; marc.ocathasaigh@oireachtas.ie; roderic.ogorman@oireachtas.ie
ossian.smyth@greenparty.ie
Sinn Fein TDs
john.brady@oireachtas.ie; pat.buckley@oireachtas.ie; Sean.Crowe@oireachtas.ie; david.cullinane@oireachtas.ie; Pearse.Doherty@oireachtas.ie; dessie.ellis@oir.ie; kathleen.funchion@oireachtas.ie; martinkennysf@gmail.com; MaryLou.McDonald@oireachtas.ie; denise.mitchell@oireachtas.ie; imelda.munster@oireachtas.ie; eoin.obroin@oireachtas.ie; donnchadh.olaoghaire@oireachtas.ie; aengus.osnodaigh@oireachtas.ie; louiseoreillysf@gmail.com; maurice.quinlivan@oireachtas.ie; Brian.Stanley@oireachtas.ie; mark.ward@oireachtas.ie; chris.andrews@oireachtas.ie; martin.browne@oireachtas.ie; matt.carthy@oireachtas.ie; sorca.clarke@oireachtas.ie; roseconwaywalsh@eircom.net; reada.cronin@oireachtas.ie; pa.daly@oireachtas.ie; paul.donnelly@oireachtas.ie; mairead.farrell@oireachtas.ie; thomas.gould@oireachtas.ie; johnny.guirke@oireachtas.ie; claire.kerrane@oireachtas.ie; padraig.maclochlainn@oir.ie; johnny.mythen@oireachtas.ie; ruairi.omurchu@oireachtas.ie; darren.orourke@oireachtas.ie; patriciaryan975@gmail.com; pauline.tully@oireachtas.ie; vwynne@gmail.com
Labour Party TDs
sean.sherlock@oireachtas.ie; aodhan.oriordain@oireachtas.ie; duncan.smith@oireachtas.ie; gerald.nash@oireachtas.ie; Alan.Kelly@oireachtas.ie; brendan.howlin@oireachtas.ie
Please sign and share the petitions
Ban Blood Sports in Ireland
https://www.change.org/p/ban-blood-sports-in-ireland
Ireland – Ban cruel hare coursing
http://www.change.org/p/ireland-ban-cruel-hare-coursing
Witness the cruelty of hare coursing in Ireland
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRkXOvbUPNNjMc6LShwiiXBfnDAPbykf