Thanks to all for signing and sharing the petition to the pope on blood sports, which has now passed the 1000 mark. The following letter on the subject appeared in the Irish Examiner newspaper yesterday (August 9th):

 Petition for Pope on animal cruelty

I have just started a petition on the Change.org site, calling on Pope Francis to intervene, during his Irish visit, on behalf of animals subjected to cruel practices in Ireland.

I make the request to His Holiness bearing in mind that he took the name of the great Saint Francis of Assisi, who abhorred cruelty to animals throughout his earthly life and is now known worldwide as the Patron Saint of animals and ecology. His boundless love of animals and nature is an inspiration to all who campaign to protect our severely threatened global environment and to ease the harrowing plight of animals worldwide.

My petition asks Pope Francis to consider raising with Irish government officials the obnoxious blood sport activities that remain legal in Ireland despite years of lobbying, in particular hare coursing and fox hunting.

Our government permits coursing clubs to capture our native wild hares for use as live bait in so-called sporting events. The animals are chased within the confines of wired enclosures…mauled, battered, and tossed about like broken toys…as fans roar their approval. Hares that survive physically unscathed may die afterwards of stress-related conditions. Foxes are hounded to exhaustion and then ripped to pieces by the dogs, and fox cubs are used to “blood” young hounds across Ireland in the months leading up to the official hunting season.

Fur farms thrive here too, with more than 200,000 mink gassed to death each year after enduring six months of cruel and unnatural confinement. A Bill aimed at banning this blot on our countryside will be debated in the Dail next month.

The petition acknowledges that raising these issues during his visit to Ireland might present difficulties of a diplomatic or political nature for Pope Francis, or problems arising from ecclesiastical etiquette, but I believe that the appeal for his intervention is both justified and entirely appropriate, given the Irish government’s failure to legislate against blood sports.

Thanking you,

John Fitzgerald

Campaign for the Abolition of Cruel Sports,

Callan,

Co. Kilkenny