The gut wrenching reality of blood sports was highlighted yet again on St Stephen's Day when marauding hounds charged into a front garden in a housing estate in Macroom, County Cork. They ripped to pieces a fox that had sought refuge in the garden, in full view of a family that found the incident deeply distressing. Pictures of the mauled and mutilated animal have been circulated on social media , elciting shock that such a practice is still legal in Ireland. At a festive coursing fixture in County Clare, eighteen hares were struck or mauled by greyhounds. Seven were injured at a County Kerry meeting. Dozens more fixtures are scheduled for January, culminating in the so-called showpiece National Hare Coursing Festival the following month. Agriculture Minister Michael Creed, who recently announced a ban on wild animals in circuses, takes a disturbingly more sympathetic view of fox hunting and hare coursing, "sports" that make the circus look harmless by comparison. I hope 2018 will see renewed efforts within the Oireachtas to end these abhorrent practises. Nothing of genuine import can be said in their favour, while every humane instinct cries our for their abolition. From Irish Council Against Blood Sports press release: A fox brutally savaged to death in a Cork housing estate yesterday is one of the latest victims of Ireland's cruel foxhunting. Horrific photos posted online [https://www.facebook.com/vikki.fauna.5205/posts/730361850487197] show the remains of the unfortunate creature after he was cornered in a garden and attacked by a pack of hounds during a St Stephen's Day hunt. The attack was witnessed by a family who were left in shock after seeing the defenceless animal killed in their front garden. "I'm absolutely horrified, shaking with shock," witness Niamh stated. "About 30-40 hunt dogs have come into the estate here in Macroom and ripped apart a fox in my garden. My family watched this needless cruelty, and are extremely upset. Almost 15 minutes later, 3 jeeps full of scumbags were at the entrance of the estate. Of course I took off out to them. The ignorant prick in the gold jeep drove at me. They want the fox, but they can f*** off, and if they set foot on my property they will be sorry." There should be no place in modern Ireland for foxhunting. A ban on this cruel and barbaric bloodsport is long overdue here. In foxhunting, foxes are chased to exhaustion and attacked/torn apart when caught by the pack of dogs. Foxes who try to escape underground are dug out and thrown to the pack to be killed. Please join us as we renew our appeal to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Agriculture Minister Michael Creed (a native of Macroom who has responsibility for animal welfare legislation) to ban foxhunting and all bloodsports. An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar Department of the Taoiseach, Upper Merrion St, Dublin 2 Telephone: +353 (0)1-6194020 Email: taoiseach@taoiseach.gov.ie, leo.varadkar@oireachtas.ie Tweet to: @campaignforLeo Leave a comment on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/campaignforleo/