Video, Irish Council Against Blood Sports: Protests against cruel hare coursing – this Friday and Monday‏

“I received this email today & need extra hands to raise awareness to this cruel sport; it is already illegal in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland & Wales. There are petitions, emails & a letter to send; all the information you need (example letter you can use) is below. Please share with all your friends on social media & help stop this cruel sport”

Dear Supporter

Please join one or both of the upcoming protests against cruel hare coursing: Express your support for a ban on coursing. “Sign and share petitions below”

This Friday, January 30th from 12.30 to 2pm
outside the offices of coursing sponsor, BoyleSports, Westmoreland St,
Dublin 1.

and

Monday February 2nd from 12 midday to 2pm
outside the national coursing finals, Powerstown Park Clonmel

Be there for the hares and greyhounds – both victims of this cruel blood sport. See below for latest news in relation to the Irish Coursing Club’s callous advice to greyhound owners – “do not give away unwanted greyhounds. It is far better to put them painlessly to sleep.”

Thank you for your continued support.

With best wishes.

Irish Council Against Blood Sports
PO Box 88, Mullingar, Co Westmeath, Ireland

Email: info@banbloodsports.com
Website: http://www.banbloodsports.com
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/icabs
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/banbloodsports
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/banbloodsports
Mobile: http://www.banbloodsports.com/mobile/

Ban hare coursing in Ireland

Video produced by Philip Kiernan
Irish Council Against Blood Sports

Join our mailing list: Send “Subscribe” to info@banbloodsports.com along with your name and location.

Sign our online petitions
https://www.change.org/users/banbloodsports

Receive occasional campaign updates to your mobile phone:
Text GO to 086-038 6617 (this is a free service)

Keep hunters off your land: Click on “Farmers” at
http://www.banbloodsports.com

DISGUSTING;-“Kill greyhounds, don’t rehome them” – Callous advice from Irish Coursing Club 28 January 2015. The Irish Coursing Club is callously advising greyhound owners to destroy unwanted greyhounds instead of rehoming them. In a damning internal report, uncovered by the Irish Council Against Blood Sports, owners are advised: “Do not give away unwanted greyhounds. It is far better to put them painlessly to sleep.”

What constitutes putting a dog “painlessly to sleep” is not specified in the document.

Entitled “A Summary of Directives, Instructions and Guidance Notes Issued by the Executive Committee of the Irish Coursing Club to Club Secretaries, Control Stewards Judges and Slippers” it conveys the contempt with which coursers regard greyhounds incapable of winning money for their owners. Dogs “that have run a number of times during the season” without success are branded “no-hopers”.

The document also reveals the use of injured greyhounds in hare coursing. In a section headed “Running Of Injured Greyhounds“, it states “As the implementation of a rule to cater for the running of injured greyhounds in order to qualify for prize money would be difficult, the Executive Committee ask that the stewards of meetings use their judgement in relation to the matter.”

The coursers’ Instructions and Guidance document leaves no doubt that both hares and greyhounds are victims of this cruel bloodsport. The time is now for the government to ban this shameful activity.

ACTION ALERT

Express your support for a ban on coursing. Sign, share petitions & send letter below.

Stop Licensing Cruel Hare Coursing
https://www.change.org/p/minister-heather-humphreys-stop-licensing-cruel-hare-coursing

Save Irish hares from cruel coursing
https://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/minister-simon-coveney-replace-hare-coursing-with-drag-coursing

Ban horrific hare coursing cruelty in Ireland
https://www.change.org/petitions/taoiseach-prime-minister-of-ireland-support-a-bill-to-ban-the-cruel-practise-of-live-hare-coursing-in-ireland

Stop sponsoring hare coursing in Ireland
http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-sponsoring-hare-coursing-in-ireland#

Urge Minister Heather Humphreys to show compassion for the persecuted Irish Hare and revoke the coursing licence she issued.

Email “Stop the cruelty. Revoke the hare coursing licence” to
Heather.Humphreys@oireachtas.ie
ministers.office@ahg.gov.ie –  taoiseach@taoiseach.gov.ie – joan.burton@oireachtas.ie – wildlifelicence@ahg.gov.ie – Gerry.Leckey@ahg.gov.ie

Tel: (01) 631 3802 or (01) 631 3800

Leave a comment on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/heather.humphreysfg
Tweet to Heather Humphreys: @HHumphreysFG

SAMPLE LETTER
(If you have time, please compose your own personal letter. Otherwise, feel free to send the short sample letter below. Be assertive, but polite, in all correspondence. Thank you.)

Dear Minister,

I am one of the majority who want hare coursing outlawed. I am writing to urge you to revoke the licence you issued to the Irish Coursing Club. In coursing, hares suffer 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. Every season, hare injuries and deaths are documented.
I ask you to please act on the wishes of the majority, show compassion
and permanently revoke the licence.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

[Name/Location]

Appeal to the Minister for Agriculture

Please appeal to the Minister for Agriculture to remove an exemption for hare coursing from the Animal Health and Welfare Act.

Simon Coveney, TD
Minister for Agriculture
Agriculture House,
Kildare Street, Dublin 2. Email: Simon.Coveney@oireachtas.ie Tel: 01-607 2884 or LoCall 1890-200510. Fax: 01-661 1013.

Urgently contact An Taoiseach Enda Kenny and ask him to back a ban on hare coursing.

An Taoiseach, Enda Kenny
Department of the Taoiseach,
Government Buildings,
Upper Merrion Street,
Dublin 2  Email: taoiseach@taoiseach.gov.ie  Telephone: 01-6194020  Fax: 01-6764048

Contact all your local TDs now. Demand that they urgently push for a ban on hare coursing and all bloodsports. Tell them you are one of the majority who want coursing banned. Remind them that coursing is already illegal in Northern Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales. Urge them to respect the wishes of the majority of the electorate and back a ban.

 Related articles

• Four men from Kent are fined in connection with hare coursing in Ixworth last October

‘Twisted & Sick’ badger baiter Anthony Lee jailed

A man who urged his dog to attack and kill badgers and kept footage of the fights on his phone has been jailed.

A magistrate wiped away tears while watching three videos of animal fights that Anthony Lee, 23, recorded.

Lee, of Coronation Way, Keighley, West Yorkshire, admitted three counts of animal fighting and was jailed for 23 weeks at Bradford Magistrates’ Court.

The RSPCA said the case was “as bad as one can get” and described Lee’s actions as “twisted and sick”.

In the first video played to the court, a badger could be heard squealing alongside the sound of laughter from Lee and another person.

Life ban

The second video showed a badger being killed after being shaken around in Lee’s dog’s mouth while another dog had hold of it.

The third video showed a dog fighting a badger in its sett.

Badgers suffer an “extreme amount of pain” as a result of badger baiting and the dogs involved also suffer injuries, prosecutor Nigel Monaghan told the court.

He added: “In terms of animal cruelty the RSPCA regard this case as bad in terms of suffering and cruelty as one can get.”

Lee was given a three-week discount on the maximum sentence the court could hand down because he entered a guilty plea.

Chairman of the bench Robert Thornton said: “This is the most serious case we can think of.”

Lee was also banned from keeping or looking after animals for the rest of his life. Both of his dogs have been re-homed.

Badger baiters draw no financial benefit from their actions, RSPCA investigator Carroll Lamport said after the hearing.

He said: “It is just for their own twisted and sick kicks and there is a really high level of cruelty. ” I couldn’t agree more!”

News Link:-http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-18167422

Three in court over badger baiting

THREE MEN HAVE appeared before a court in Co Down today after they were arrested by PSNI officers on suspicion of animal cruelty.

The men, aged 19, 21 and 42 have been charged with animal cruelty offences concerning the unnecessary suffering of a terrier dog and a badger. They have also been accused of interfering with a badger sett.

The BBC reports that the men were ordered by the judge to desist from hunting activities and to maintain a 9pm-7am curfew. A fourth man due in court could not attend for medical reasons.

The arrests were made in connection with the UK-wide Operation Meles, which aims to disrupt badger baiting activities.

What is badger baiting?

Badger baiting is a bloodsport in which badgers are hunted from their setts and pitched against dogs in a fight. It usually ends with the death of the badger, though the dogs can sustain serious injuries in the fight.

Sometimes, baiters cause serious damage to the badger by crippling it or breaking its jaws to prevent injury to the dogs.

Badger baiting is illegal in the UK and in the Republic of Ireland, and it is illegal to interfere with a badger sett.

Baiting is quite widespread across Northern Ireland, with thousands of badgers being killed this way ever year, according to David Wilson of the USPCA.

“The people who are involved and doing the damage are generally criminal gangs from urban situations who go out into the environment,” Wilson told TheJournal.ie. “Badgers are strange creatures: they will stay with a sett for hundreds of years and for generations, so they’re not hard to find. These people will open the setts a bit with spades and sent small dogs down to seize the badgers.

“They don’t even care about the danger to their dogs. Badgers are extremely powerful animals and some of the injuries on the dogs are beyond life-threatening – they just have to be put to sleep.”

He said that anyone who suspects badger baiting is happening should contact the police immediately.

Culling

There is a badger cull in place in the Republic of Ireland as part of the Department of Agriculture’s efforts to tackle TB in cattle. However, some researchers say there is little evidence of culling having an effect in the eradication of bovine TB.

Conn Flynn of the Irish Wildlife Trust told TheJournal.ie that a 12-year study in the UK found that culling badgers has no significant contribution to cutting the level of bovine TB. Instead, culling can force the highly-territorial animals to flee and spread into other areas, potentially spreading the disease.

The study found that cattle measures are the best way of controlling the disease, but there are restrictions on vaccination cattle due to export regulations.

Flynn says that a study is underway in Ireland to examine the effects of the oral vaccination of badgers.

He also says that tackling badger baiting is very difficult for gardaí, but that it happens all over the state and the Trust has received a number of reports of baiting in Meath and Offaly in particular.

News Link:-http://www.thejournal.ie/psni-badget-baiting-animal-cruelty-operationmeles-434490-Apr2012/

Four charged with animal cruelty

Four men have been charged in connection with a police operation into badger baiting.

The detained men – aged 19, 21 39 and 42 – will face counts of animal cruelty at Newtownards Magistrates’ Court on Monday 30 April.

Police said it comes after a series of arrests were made on 26 March as part of Operation Meles, the investigation into badger baiting across Northern Ireland.

The charges will be reviewed by the Public Prosecution Service

News posted from:-U.tv.News