Cubs around Ireland face weeks of bloody barbarity

Cubs around Ireland face weeks of bloody barbarity as the cubhunting season begins again this month. In the run-up to the start of another season of cruel foxhunting, hunters surround earths in the early hours after dawn and flush the resident foxes out into the open. They then goad their hounds into attacking and killing the cubs. The doomed youngsters are mauled, bitten and pulled apart by the dogs.

This merciless brutality is carried out to introduce new hounds to the taste of fox blood and to disperse foxes – parents and siblings of targeted cubs are scattered so that their wider distribution will later provide a wider hunting area.

The hunters like to refer to their shameful barbarity as ‘Autumn hunting’ but their euphemism doesn’t disguise the fact that it’s one of Ireland’s nastiest acts of cruelty.

To do this to an animal should be illegal in Ireland but our legislators have so far refused to ban foxhunting. They disgracefully voted to ensure that an exemption for the bloodsport remained in the Animal Health and Welfare Act and they rejected a proposed amendment which sought to make foxhunting an offence.

This recreational animal cruelty is totally unacceptable in modern Ireland. Please join us in contacting the government and demanding a long overdue ban on foxhunting.

ACTION ALERTS

Contact the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar and urge him to ban fox hunting.

An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar
Upper Merrion St, Dublin 2
Telephone: +353 (0)1-6194020
Email: taoiseach@taoiseach.gov.ie, leo.varadkar@oireachtas.ie
Leave a comment on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/campaignforleo/
Tweet to: @campaignforLeo

Please sign and share our petition – Ban Blood Sports in Ireland Now
https://www.change.org/petitions/ban-blood-sports-in-ireland
Contact the Agriculture Minister now and demand that the exemption for foxhunting is removed from the Animal Health and Welfare Act.

Michael Creed TD
Minister for Agriculture
Department of Agriculture
Kildare Street, Dublin 2.
Email: michael.creed@oir.ie
Tel: +353 (0)1-607 2000 or LoCall 1890-200510.
Leave a comment on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michaelcreedtd
Tweet to: @creedcnw

Appeal to all Irish politicians

Please join us in telling the Irish Government that it is now time to ban foxhunting. Contact all your local TDs and urge them to push for a ban on this blood sport. Visit the Oireachtas website for names of TDs and their email addresses http://www.oireachtas.ie/members-hist/default.asp?housetype=0&HouseNum=32&disp=mem

Write to your TDs at: Dail Eireann, Leinster House, Kildare Street, Dublin 2. Tel: 01-618 3000 or 1890 337 889. Please also arrange a meeting with your TDs at their local clinics.
Keep hunters off your land

If you are a landowner, make your land off-limits to hunters. Find out more about how to do this on our Farmers/Landowners Page – http://www.banbloodsports.com/farmers.htm Encourage all land-owning friends and family members in the countryside to show compassion and make their land a haven for wildlife. If hunters are denied access to land, the wildlife will be spared the suffering of cubhunting and foxhunting.

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Taxpayer-funded IGB announces €1 million grant for Kilkenny greyhound track

The taxpayer-funded Irish Greyhound Board is set to hand over €1,000,000 to Kilkenny greyhound stadium, it has emerged.

The Kilkenny People newspaper has reported that the million euro grant “was signed off on this week by the board and outgoing chairman of Bord na gCon, Phil Meaney from Carlow”.

The cash injection into the privately-operated stadium is part of a €6 million track renovation plan announced by the IGB. It has money to spend after receiving another €16 million of taxpayers’ money this year from the government as well as a payment of €23 million from the Department of Education for Harold’s Cross stadium – a track which was believed to be worth less than half of that.

In the IGB’s 5-year Strategic Plan, published earlier this year, it was revealed that in addition to the €1 million for Kilkenny track, Shelbourne Park is due to receive €3 million, Cork’s Curraheen Park will get €200,000, while €2,800,000 is earmarked for “other stadium renovations including Kilkenny”. Following the €1 million payment this year, the IGB plans to give these “other tracks” €500,000 in 2019, €450,000 in 2020, €600,000 in 2021 and a quarter of a million euros in 2022.

These are just the latest grants doled out by the Irish Greyhound Board to tracks. As highlighted by ICABS last month, the IGB’s annual report revealed that the Board is handing over substantial sums of money to private tracks. The report shows that “grant assistance to private stadia” increased from €311,222 in 2016 to €340,758 last year.

Money is being ploughed into stadiums despite figures showing that the Irish public is increasingly rejecting greyhound racing.

Track attendance fell in 2017 by 122,368 to 514,546 – the lowest level since records began – and the average attendance at race meetings dropped from 380 to 329. That’s despite the marketing and promotion budget being increased to €1.7 million. Attendance has been steadily falling over the past decade. Since 2007, when attendance was 1.12 million, the number of people going to greyhound races has slumped by 54 per cent.

This is almost certainly linked to a growing awareness among the Irish public about the doping of dogs (to affect the outcomes of races) and the injury and death of greyhounds. In the past three and a half years alone, 1,369 greyhounds suffered injuries at tracks around the country and 438 were killed by track vets. This includes 36 greyhounds injured and 13 killed at Kilkenny track.

With attendance falling, all of the IGB-operated tracks suffered losses in 2017, while its food and drinks subsidiary company (Abargrove Ltd) made a loss of nearly half a million euros. The next largest loss (€356,303) was seen at Limerick track – the headquarters of the IGB. Figures are not available for the seven privately-owned tracks but it is believed that they too are making losses. For example, Longford greyhound track (owned by a Scottish businessman) came close to closure last year, saved only after a fundraising drive and continued annual cash injections of over €40,000 from the Greyhound Board. In June, Lifford track in Donegal was put on the market for the second time in four years. A drop in attendance was noted by one visitor, who commented on the Lifford Greyhound Stadium Facebook page: “I absolutely love this greyhound stadium but can’t believe how quiet it has gotten over the years…”

How deplorable that with so many worthy causes crying out for funding around Ireland, the government sees fit to continue squandering public funds on a cruel and crumbling gambling industry.

ACTION ALERT

Don’t attend greyhound races or fundraisers/hen parties/office parties held at greyhound tracks.

The greyhound industry has received nearly a quarter of a billion euros of taxpayers’ money since 2001 (including €16 million for 2018). Urge Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe to stop the funding and instead direct the money to charities, sports clubs, animal rescue centres, health groups and other deserving causes. Email “Stop funding the cruel greyhound industry” to taoiseach@taoiseach.gov.ie, leo.varadkar@oireachtas.ie, paschal.donohoe@oireachtas.ie, minister@per.gov.ie

An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar
Department of the Taoiseach,
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: @campaignforLeo
Leave a comment on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/campaignforleo/

Paschal Donohoe TD
Minister for Finance
Email: paschal.donohoe@oireachtas.ie, minister@per.gov.ie
Phone: +353 (0)1 6045810
Leave a comment on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaschalDonohoe/
Tweet to @Paschald

Please sign and share our petitions

Irish Government: Stop Giving Millions of Euro to Cruel Greyhound Industry
https://www.change.org/p/irish-government-stop-giving-millions-of-euro-to-cruel-greyhound-industry

Stop supporting the cruel greyhound industry
https://www.change.org/p/stop-supporting-the-cruel-greyhound-industry

 

Scourge of Hare Coursing – Letter to the Editor

“A few days ago, the Department of Arts, Heritage, and the Gaeltacht issued a license permitting the capture of hares for another coursing season…despite the continuing decline of the Irish Hare across the island” – Read John Fitzgerald’s Letter to the Editor in today’s Irish Independent…

Scourge of Hare Coursing
Irish Independent, 17 August 2018

The writer Brendan Behan attended a hare coursing event back in the 1950s. In Confessions of an Irish Rebel he admitted that “the screams of the hares gave me the excuse to stop in the tent drinking whiskey for to drown the noise.”

Sadly, in 2018 we still have this blot on the Irish countryside. A few days ago, the Department of Arts, Heritage, and the Gaeltacht issued a license permitting the capture of hares for another coursing season…despite the continuing decline of the Irish Hare across the island.

Northern Ireland banned hare coursing in 2011 on both animal welfare and conservationist grounds. Hare density; and the levels of distress suffered by coursed hares are almost the same here in the Republic as they were up North. Yet successive Irish governments allow hare coursing to continue.

Because the greyhounds are muzzled nowadays, you don’t hear the hares scream as loudly as in Behan’s day. They no longer become ropes in those live tug of war sessions that coursing clubs finally recognized as bad PR for their “sport”. But they are injured, and traumatised.

With the greatest respect to the man who gave us The Quare Fellow and The Hostage, I don’t think it’s right to respond to hare coursing by shutting our eyes or ears to it.

John Fitzgerald,
Callan, Co. Kilkenny

__________________________________________________

ICABS ACTION ALERT

With warnings from wildlife experts that the species is in trouble, it is now more clear than ever that the Irish Hare must be given full protection. Urgently contact Minister Josepha Madigan and the National Parks and Wildlife Service and demand that they revoke the 2018-19 hare coursing licence.

Minister Josepha Madigan
Minister for Culture, Heritage & the Gaeltacht
Phone: +353 (0)1 631 3800
Email: josepha.madigan@oireachtas.ie, ministers.office@ahg.gov.ie, wildlifelicence@ahg.gov.ie, john.fitzgerald@ahg.gov.ie, Gerry.Leckey@ahg.gov.ie, nature.conservation@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

VIDEOS

See the cruelty of hare coursing on our Youtube channel
https://www.youtube.com/icabs

SAMPLE LETTER
(If you have time, please compose your own personal letter. Otherwise, feel free to send the short sample letter below)

Dear Minister,
I am one of the majority who want hare coursing outlawed. I am writing to demand that you revoke the 2018-19 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]

The Irish Hare is a protected species but an exemption for coursing in the Animal Health and Welfare Act means coursers are not liable for prosecution for their cruelty. Join us in our call to the government to remove the exemption and provide full and permanent protection to this cherished species.

Contact An Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar and ask him to ban hare coursing and give permanent protection to hares.

An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar
Department of the Taoiseach,
Government Buildings,
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/

Express your support for a ban on coursing. Sign and share the petitions

Ireland: Ban cruel hare coursing
https://www.change.org/p/ireland-ban-cruel-hare-coursing

Ban Blood Sports in Ireland
https://www.change.org/petitions/ban-blood-sports-in-ireland

Robert Troy TD urged to support a ban on fur farming

In 2011, Fianna Fail TD Robert Troy (Longford Westmeath) asked the Minister for Agriculture “his plans to include a ban on fur farming [in animal welfare legislation]”. https://www.kildarestreet.com/wrans/?id=2011-12-08.1050.0

Please join us in urging Deputy Troy and the Fianna Fail party to support Solidarity’s upcoming Prohibition of Fur Farming 2018 bill.

Fianna Fail has in the past backed a fur farm ban. In coalition with the Green Party, it agreed to a 3-year phase-out; however, due to the collapse of that government, this ban unfortunately never materialised.

Earlier this month, Willie O’Dea TD (Fianna Fail, Limerick City), said the party will review Solidarity’s bill when it is published, stating “I understand your concerns regarding the practices of fur farming.” Seán Haughey TD (Fianna Fail, Dublin Bay North) has previously asked the Minister for Agriculture “if he will consider revoking licences” for fur farming. In 2013, Stephen Donnelly TD (former Social Democrats TD and now Fianna Fail) supported an amendment to the Animal Health and Welfare Bill which sought to outlaw fur farming.

On Ireland’s three remaining fur farms, tens of thousands of mink are permanently caged and at six months of age, they are pulled from the cages and poisoned to death with Carbon Monoxide before the fur is pulled from their bones. See video links below. It is time for Ireland to join the growing list of countries in the EU and around the world which have banned fur farming.

 

ACTION ALERT

Urge Robert Troy TD and Fianna Fail to pledge support for a ban on fur farming.

Email: robert.troy@oireachtas.ie
CC: info@fiannafail.ie, micheal.martin@oireachtas.ie
Tel: (044) 9334857
Mobile: (087) 7979890
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/roberttroytd/
Tweet to @RobertTroyTD

Send an email to ALL Fianna Fail TDs
billykelleher@eircom.net,sean.haughey@oireachtas.ie,Bobby.Aylward@oireachtas.ie,brendan.smith@oireachtas.ie,johncurranff@gmail.com,Charlie.McConalogue@oireachtas.ie,michael.mcgrath@oireachtas.ie,sean.ofearghail@oireachtas.ie,john.brassil@oireachtas.ie,darragh.obrien@oireachtas.ie,eamon.ocuiv@oireachtas.ie,jackie.cahill@oireachtas.ie,john.mcguinness@oireachtas.ie,mattie.mcgrath@oireachtas.ie,micheal.martin@oireachtas.ie,michael.moynihan.td@oireachtas.ie,niall.collins@oireachtas.ie,coper@eircom.net,Robert.Troy@oireachtas.ie,thomas.byrne@oireachtas.ie,timmy.dooley@oireachtas.ie,barry.cowen@oireachtas.ie,fiona@fiona.ie,declan.breathnach@oireachtas.ie,mary.butler@oireachtas.ie,kevin.okeeffe@oireachtas.ie,dara.calleary@oireachtas.ie,escanlonmcc@eircom.net,sean.fleming@oireachtas.ie,niamh.smyth@oireachtas.ie,james@jameslawless.ie,shane.cassells@oireachtas.ie,willie.odea@oireachtas.ie,margaret.murphyomahony@oireachtas.ie,anne.rabbitte@oireachtas.ie,eugene.murphy@oireachtas.ie,jack.chambers@outlook.com,james.browne@oireachtas.ie,john.lahart@oireachtas.ie,lisa.chambers@oireachtas.ie,marc.macsharry@oireachtas.ie,jim.ocallaghan@oireachtas.ie,pat.casey@oireachtas.ie,aindrias.moynihan@oireachtas.ie,frankorourke1@gmail.com

Please contact all your local TDs and urge them to support Solidarity’s bill. Contact details for TDs can be found at https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/tds/?term=/ie/oireachtas/house/dail/32

Email “Please support a ban on cruel fur farming” to Fine Gael:
finegael@finegael.ie, leo.varadkar@oireachtas.ie

Find out more about Solidarity’s Bill at

Join us in urging Minister Michael Creed and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to put in place a long overdue ban on fur farming.

Email “Ban fur farming NOW” to Leo.Varadkar@oir.ie, michael.creed@oir.ie, taoiseach@taoiseach.gov.ie, AnimalHealthAndWelfareAct@agriculture.gov.ie

Tel: +353 (0)1 6194000 (Leo Varadkar)
Tel: 01-607 2000 or LoCall 1890-200510 (Michael Creed)
Tweet: @campaignforleo @creedcnw Ban fur farming NOW
Comment on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/campaignforleo/
https://www.facebook.com/michaelcreedtd

Sign and share our petition – Ban fur farming in Ireland
https://www.change.org/petitions/ban-fur-farming-in-ireland-please-sign-and-share-our-petition

VIDEOS

ICABS footage – Victims of Ireland’s cruel far farming

NARA footage showing caged mink in a fur farm in Donegal

Mink pulled from cages and thrown into gassing box

‘Wildlife criminals’ targeted in new plan

“There is a very low risk of being caught here in Ireland” – The Irish Times has reported that Gardai are preparing a training course to help catch deer poachers, hare poachers, bird trappers, badger baiters and “really bad criminals” using dogs to catch and kill deer. ICABS welcomes this development, having called for a wildlife crime unit over the years. Our campaign for a ban on all bloodsport activities continues and we look forward to the day when Gardai will have the power to pursue those involved in cruel foxhunting, terrierwork, digging-out and hare coursing…

‘Wildlife criminals’ targeted in new plan
Garda to introduce training course in effort to tackle gangs of poachers

Irish Times, Friday, August 10, 2018

Wildlife criminals, including deer poachers and gangs capturing wild birds for sale abroad, “are pillaging the countryside”, according to the senior garda who led a successful operation against deer poachers in Leinster five years ago.

Now, the Garda Síochána is preparing a new training course beginning in September for officers in a bid to tackle the gangs, according to Supt Martin Walker.

“There is a very low risk of being caught here in Ireland and the profits are quite strong,” said Supt Walker, who led the Garda’s anti-poaching Operation Bambi alongside the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS).

The new Garda strategy was revealed at the launch of the Irish Deer Commission, a voluntary deer management and conservation group, in Co Laois.

Deer poachers are increasingly using infrared telescopic sights for night-time shootings in the mountains, which means they can “operate without being given away by lights”, Supt Walker said.

Once they have killed and gutted the deer, poachers mark the location with GPS for later collection. Returning the following day means they can collect the deer carcasses without carrying weapons.

Gangs can kill 10 deer in a night. A red deer stag can fetch up to €550. A Sika deer will fetch about €100. Hare poaching is becoming an increasing problem, he said, with the animals later used for illegal coursing.

Finching, the illegal capture of wild birds, is also growing. Bullfinches can fetch up to €150 and goldfinches can be sold for up to €50. Badger baiting is occurring more frequently, particularly in the midlands.

Fear

Saying that wildlife crime is causing fear in rural Ireland, Supt Walker said a Co Kildare farmer had his jaw broken when he challenged a group of men on his land.

Elsewhere, domestic animals have been shot and thoroughbred race horses were injured, he said: “Wildlife crime is worth €20 billion across Europe for criminal gangs and organisations.

After drug importation, firearms and human trafficking it is the highest income for criminal elements,” said Supt Walker, who added that prosecution under the 1976 Wildlife Act was complicated.

“We are trying to establish a core group of guards to challenge that type of behaviour. We have had three wildlife crime conferences, two by Rehabilitation Ireland and the National Parks ran one back in February. There are groups of individuals going around there and they are pillaging the countryside.

Some deer poachers do not shoot their prey. Instead, “more nefarious individuals, they are really bad criminals” are going out and “are literally setting dogs on these poor unfortunate deer,” causing great hardship, Supt Walker said.

A Garda inspector in each Garda division is now to work closely their opposite number in the district office in the NPWS. The training course will be led by a Garda Assistant Commissioner.

Eoghan MacConnell

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/wildlife-criminals-targeted-in-new-plan-1.3591318?mode=amp
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ICABS ACTION ALERT

Ban Blood Sports in Ireland Now – Please sign and share our petition
https://www.change.org/petitions/ban-blood-sports-in-ireland

Contact An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and An Tanaiste Simon Coveney. Urge them to ban hare coursing and foxhunting.

Leo Varadkar
An Taoiseach/Prime Minister
Government Buildings,
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/

Simon Coveney TD
Tanaiste/Deputy Prime Minister
Iveagh House
80 St Stephen’s Green
Dublin 2
Phone: +353 (0)1 408 2000
Email: simon.coveney@oireachtas.ie
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SimonCoveney
Tweet to: @simoncoveney

Contact Minister Josepha Madigan and urge her to stop licensing hare coursing

Josepha Madigan TD
Minister for Culture, Heritage & the Gaeltacht
Phone: +353 (0)1 631 3800
Email: josepha.madigan@oireachtas.ie
Leave a comment on Facebook: https://facebook.com/JosephaMadiganFG
Tweet to: @josephamadigan

‘Wildlife criminals’ targeted in new Garda plan

“There is a very low risk of being caught here in Ireland” – The Irish Times has reported that Gardai are preparing a training course to help catch deer poachers, hare poachers, bird trappers, badger baiters and “really bad criminals” using dogs to catch and kill deer. ICABS welcomes this development, having called for a wildlife crime unit over the years. Our campaign for a ban on all bloodsport activities continues and we look forward to the day when Gardai will have the power to also pursue those involved in cruel foxhunting, terrierwork, digging-out and hare hunting/coursing…

 

‘Wildlife criminals’ targeted in new plan

Garda to introduce training course in effort to tackle gangs of poachers

 

Irish Times, Friday, August 10, 2018

 

Wildlife criminals, including deer poachers and gangs capturing wild birds for sale abroad, “are pillaging the countryside”, according to the senior garda who led a successful operation against deer poachers in Leinster five years ago.

 

Now, the Garda Síochána is preparing a new training course beginning in September for officers in a bid to tackle the gangs, according to Supt Martin Walker.

 

“There is a very low risk of being caught here in Ireland and the profits are quite strong,” said Supt Walker, who led the Garda’s anti-poaching Operation Bambi alongside the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS).

 

The new Garda strategy was revealed at the launch of the Irish Deer Commission, a voluntary deer management and conservation group, in Co Laois.

 

Deer poachers are increasingly using infrared telescopic sights for night-time shootings in the mountains, which means they can “operate without being given away by lights”, Supt Walker said.

 

Once they have killed and gutted the deer, poachers mark the location with GPS for later collection. Returning the following day means they can collect the deer carcasses without carrying weapons.

 

Gangs can kill 10 deer in a night. A red deer stag can fetch up to €550. A Sika deer will fetch about €100. Hare poaching is becoming an increasing problem, he said, with the animals later used for illegal coursing.

 

Finching, the illegal capture of wild birds, is also growing. Bullfinches can fetch up to €150 and goldfinches can be sold for up to €50. Badger baiting is occurring more frequently, particularly in the midlands.

 

Fear

 

Saying that wildlife crime is causing fear in rural Ireland, Supt Walker said a Co Kildare farmer had his jaw broken when he challenged a group of men on his land.

 

Elsewhere, domestic animals have been shot and thoroughbred race horses were injured, he said: “Wildlife crime is worth €20 billion across Europe for criminal gangs and organisations.

 

After drug importation, firearms and human trafficking it is the highest income for criminal elements,” said Supt Walker, who added that prosecution under the 1976 Wildlife Act was complicated.

 

“We are trying to establish a core group of guards to challenge that type of behaviour. We have had three wildlife crime conferences, two by Rehabilitation Ireland and the National Parks ran one back in February. There are groups of individuals going around there and they are pillaging the countryside.

 

Some deer poachers do not shoot their prey. Instead, “more nefarious individuals, they are really bad criminals” are going out and “are literally setting dogs on these poor unfortunate deer,” causing great hardship, Supt Walker said.

 

A Garda inspector in each Garda division is now to work closely their opposite number in the district office in the NPWS. The training course will be led by a Garda Assistant Commissioner.

 

Eoghan MacConnell

 

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/wildlife-criminals-targeted-in-new-plan-1.3591318?mode=amp

 

 

—————————————————-

 

ICABS ACTION ALERT

 

Ban Blood Sports in Ireland Now – Please sign and share our petition

https://www.change.org/petitions/ban-blood-sports-in-ireland

 

Contact An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and An Tanaiste Simon Coveney. Urge them to ban hare coursing and foxhunting.

 

Leo Varadkar

An Taoiseach/Prime Minister

Government Buildings,

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/

 

Simon Coveney TD

Tanaiste/Deputy Prime Minister

Iveagh House

80 St Stephen’s Green

Dublin 2

Phone: +353 (0)1 408 2000

Email: simon.coveney@oireachtas.ie

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SimonCoveney

Tweet to: @simoncoveney

 

Contact Minister Josepha Madigan and urge her to stop licensing hare coursing

 

Josepha Madigan TD

Minister for Culture, Heritage & the Gaeltacht

Phone: +353 (0)1 631 3800

Email: josepha.madigan@oireachtas.ie

Leave a comment on Facebook: https://facebook.com/JosephaMadiganFG

Tweet to: @josephamadigan

“Ban fur farming” stall in Cork city centre

A Saturday stall in Cork city centre is encouraging people to join the campaign for a ban on Ireland’s cruel fur farming. Read the Evening Echo report for more details…

Patrick Street stall to highlight fur farming
Evening Echo, 3 August 2018

The Green Party wants to raise public awareness about the Irish fur farming industry through stalls on Patrick Street.

A coalition of Cork animal rights activists, including the Greens, will begin hosting a regular stall in Cork city centre from this Saturday to highlight the issue of fur farming ahead of legislation to ban the practice in Ireland in Autumn.

Fur farming was in the process of being phased out in Ireland by the Green Party when it was in government before 2011.

However, the process was reversed by the now Tanaiste, Simon Coveney, in 2012.

Three fur farms remain in Ireland, farming hundreds of thousands of mink for export each year.

Announcing the start of the campaign in Cork, Mark Cronin, the Green Party’s representative in the Cork City North East ward, said the practice is cruel, keeping mink outside their natural habitat.

“Three fur farms remain in Ireland. These kill 200,000 mink every year, all for the sake of fashion. The mink are held in small cages, completely alientated from their natural habitat, which would be by river banks and other water areas as they are a solitary, semi-aquatic animal.”

He said that this is part of an international movement to end fur farming and called on locals to get involved and lobby in favour of a ban.

“The trend across Europe is to ban this industry. Belgium is the latest country to declare it will. The bill in Autumn is being introduced by Solidarity and has cross-party support, including the Green Party.

“It is imperative that people should make their opposition to this shameful industry known. A goal of setting up this stall is to get people to lobby their local TD in relation to the bill and to ban fur farming in Ireland,” he said.

The stall will be open 11.30am to 3.30pm every Saturday on Patrick Street.

ICABS ACTION ALERT

Please contact your TDs and urge them to support Solidarity’s upcoming Prohibition of Fur Farming Bill. Contact details for TDs can be found at https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/tds/?term=/ie/oireachtas/house/dail/32

Email “Please support a ban on cruel fur farming” to Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael:
info@fiannafail.ie, micheal.martin@oireachtas.ie, finegael@finegael.ie, leo.varadkar@oireachtas.ie

More party contact details – http://www.banbloodsports.com/parties.htm

Find out more about Solidarity’s Bill at

Join us in urging Minister Michael Creed and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to put in place a long overdue ban on fur farming.

Email “Ban fur farming NOW” to Leo.Varadkar@oir.ie, michael.creed@oir.ie, taoiseach@taoiseach.gov.ie, AnimalHealthAndWelfareAct@agriculture.gov.ie

Tel: +353 (0)1 6194000 (Leo Varadkar)
Tel: 01-607 2000 or LoCall 1890-200510 (Michael Creed)
Tweet: @campaignforleo @creedcnw Ban fur farming NOW
Comment on Facebook:
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Sign and share our petition – Ban fur farming in Ireland
https://www.change.org/petitions/ban-fur-farming-in-ireland-please-sign-and-share-our-petition

VIDEOS

ICABS footage – Victims of Ireland’s cruel far farming

NARA footage showing caged mink in a fur farm in Donegal

Mink pulled from cages and thrown into gassing box