Shelbourne Park is one of the worst tracks in Ireland for greyhound injuries and deaths.
According to sickening Irish Greyhound Board statistics, at least 142 greyhounds suffered injuries there and 32 were destroyed by a track vet over the past four years alone.
This includes 37 injuries and 8 deaths in the first nine months of last year.
INJURIES AND DEATHS AT SHELBOURNE PARK
2018
(January to September)
37 injuries, 8 deaths
2017
21 injuries, 10 deaths
2016
51 injuries, 7 deaths
2015
33 injuries, 7 deaths ACTION ALERT
Don’t attend greyhound races or fundraisers/hen parties/office parties held at greyhound tracks.
Join us in demanding an end to the government’s massive grants to the greyhound industry – €16.8 million for 2019, bringing to nearly a quarter of a billion euros the amount handed over since 2001. Contact Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe now.
An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar
Government Buildings,
Upper Merrion St, Dublin 2
Telephone: +353 (0)1-6194020
Email: taoiseach@taoiseach.gov.ie; leo.varadkar@oireachtas.ie; finegael@finegael.ie
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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/
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“Coursing is not good for hares, not in terms of conservation, and certainly not in terms of their welfare”: Read ICABS Campaign Director Aideen Yourell’s Letter to the Editor in today’s Irish Times
Coursing not good for hares
25 January 2019
Sir, – Michael Viney’s article “Can coursing be good for Irish hares? The strange answer is yes” (Weekend Review, January 12th) refers to a study carried out by Queen’s University Belfast (2010), which found that there were 18 times more hares where there were coursing clubs. It relied on hare numbers supplied by just one coursing club out of 76. The hare coursers counted the hares in their own “preserves”, and supplied the numbers.
If it’s the case that there are 18 times more hares in so-called coursing “preserves”, why, for example, did members of Doon coursing club, Co Tipperary, travel to Lough Boora Parklands, Co Offaly, to net hares in breach of the Wildlife Act, for which it was convicted in 2015? And what of Dundalk & Dowdallshill Coursing Club, which had to limit the number of courses it ran in 2017, due to a shortage of hares?
Irish hare numbers have been declining over the last century.
Coursing is not good for hares, not in terms of conservation, and certainly not in terms of their welfare.
How on earth can it be “good” for these timid, defenceless creatures to be cruelly snatched from the wild in nets, shoved into boxes, transported away from their habitat to a coursing compound to remain there for weeks on end, and then callously used as live bait for greyhounds?
As a republic that considers itself civilised and progressive, we are light years behind our neighbours in Northern Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales, who have long since banned this barbarism. – Yours, etc,
AIDEEN YOURELL,
Irish Council Against Blood Sports,
Mullingar, Co Westmeath.
With warnings from wildlife experts that the Irish Hare is in trouble, it is now more clear than ever that the species must be given FULL PROTECTION – no hare coursing, no hare hunting, no hare shooting. Urgently contact Minister Josepha Madigan and the National Parks and Wildlife Service and demand that they revoke the 2018-19 hare coursing licence and end all forms of hare persecution.
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
SAMPLE LETTER
(If you have time, please compose your own personal letter. Otherwise, feel free to send the short sample letter below)
Dear Minister Madigan,
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]
Contact An Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar and ask him to ban hare coursing and give permanent protection to hares.
An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar
Government Buildings,
Upper Merrion St, Dublin 2
Telephone: +353 (0)1-6194020
Email: taoiseach@taoiseach.gov.ie, leo.varadkar@oireachtas.ie
Tweet to: @campaignforLeo Tweet to @campaignforLeo
Leave a comment on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/campaignforleo/
The latest Irish horse to die at a UK racecourse was “WHIPPED HARSHLY” before she suffered fatal injuries and died, it has been reported.
According to Animal Aid, which monitors injuries and fatalities at racecourses in the UK, 6-year-old Irish mare Katie Connell “dislodged a rail on the way out onto the track” but was deemed fit to race after an examination by a veterinary surgeon.
“During the race she appeared never to be travelling and was whipped harshly when struggling to keep up with the pace,” Animal Aid outlines on its website. “She was pulled up distressed soon afterwards. Her injuries proved fatal.”
Katie Connell died during a 3-mile, 11 obstacle hurdle race at Doncaster on 9th January 2019. She is the 4th Irish horse to die at a UK racecourse since the start of this year. Another horse also died during the same race. French horse Damier “appeared to slip on the final bend – on what was deemed ‘good’ racing ground – and lose his momentum – he was seen in a very distressed state, having ‘broken down’.” He too was fatally injured.
Following the latest deaths, Animal Aid’s Horse Racing Consultant, Dene Stansall stated: “The distressing scenes over the past seven days on British racecourses show the cruelty of horse racing. Horses are brutally whipped when giving their best, pushed to their limits and die because they cannot cope with the conditions in which they’re asked to race. The industry has serious issues to resolve, as it clearly cannot protect the horses it uses. People are turning their backs on this so-called sport, and for good reason.”
As reported by ICABS last week, at least 101 Irish horses died at UK racetracks in 2018. Statistics compiled by Animal Aid, show that the death toll passed the 100 mark after 12 horses from Ireland died during December.
At the beginning of December, three Irish horses lost their lives in a single day at a racecourse near Edinburgh. During a 2.5 mile / 10-obstacle race at the Musselburgh track, 6-year-old Sierra Oscar suffered a broken foreleg pastern and was destroyed. 12-year-old Irish horse, Smart Ruler, collapsed during another race and died. The third dead horse was named as Kensukes Kingdom. He was lame when he finished the 2 mile/9-obstacle race and was destroyed.
A few days later at Sedgefield, Irish horse Northern Sky was leading a 2.15 mile/8 obstacle race when he fell and injured his foreleg. He was destroyed at the track.
In the week before Christmas, two more Irish horses died at UK tracks – Ablazing and Make Magic both suffered fatal injuries.
On St Stephen’s Day, another two Irish horses died – Just Bobby and Lord Fendale were destroyed after falling and sustaining injuries.
In the final few days of 2018, the deaths continued. Scales Of Justice and Fergall fell and were fatally injured; Not Normal and Sister Sibyl were destroyed due to injuries.
The Irish horse deaths account for more than half of all the 2018 deaths recorded by Animal Aid on its “Race Horse Death Watch” website – http://www.horsedeathwatch.com Since launching the site eleven years ago, the group has documented 1,843 on-course deaths.
Irish horses have died during racing in the UK every month of 2018 (see full list below) and every month in 2017 when at least 83 Irish horses lost their lives.
“No other sport comes close to matching racing’s attrition rate – if it did, a ban would quickly be imposed,” Animal Aid states. “Approximately one in every 42 horses who starts a season’s racing will have perished by the end of it. They will have died as a result of a racecourse or training injury, or they will be killed after being judged to be no longer financially viable.”
“The horse racing authorities have failed to put clear, unambiguous horse death information into the public domain, preferring to offer complex statistical data rather than specifying, as Death Watch does, the names of killed horses, where the fatality occurred, who was riding the horse and the nature of the injury,” Animal Aid adds. “We have good reason to believe that the equine fatalities we are able to list on Death Watch, and which we have verified, fall some 30% short of the true total.”
Irish horses are not only dying in the UK but here in Ireland too. Damning “equine fatality” figures – released for the first time ever last June – finally lifted the lid on the appalling level of suffering and death in horse racing around Ireland. Further to a Dail Question from Clare Daly TD, Horse Racing Ireland revealed that 779 horses have been killed at races here in the past six years. That includes 116 horse deaths since the start of 2017. Out of the 779 fatalities, 562 occurred at racecourses and 217 at point-to-points (races organised by foxhunts).
ACTION ALERT
The Irish horse racing industry has received around 1 billion euros of taxpayers’ money since 2001, including €64 million in funding for 2018 and another €67.2 million for 2019. The government’s squandering of scarce public money on horse racing is particularly deplorable at a time when our country’s health and housing is in crisis and so many worthy causes are crying out for funds. Urge Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe to end the funding.
A hare desperately tries to get away from two greyhounds at a coursing meeting in Abbeyfeale, County Limerick. This shocking image by Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters was published last month by the Irish Times and is a stark reminder of the cruelty involved in hare coursing. It’s time for the Irish Government to ban this bloodsport.
With warnings from wildlife experts that the Irish Hare is in trouble, it is now more clear than ever that the species must be given FULL PROTECTION – no hare coursing, no hare hunting, no hare shooting. Urgently contact Minister Josepha Madigan and the National Parks and Wildlife Service and demand that they revoke the 2018-19 hare coursing licence and end all forms of hare persecution.
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
SAMPLE LETTER
(If you have time, please compose your own personal letter. Otherwise, feel free to send the short sample letter below)
Dear Minister Madigan,
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]
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 Tweet to @campaignforLeo
Leave a comment on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/campaignforleo/
Please contact all your local politicians and ask them to push for a ban on this blood sport. Encourage your friends, family and workmates to contact them too. 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.
Express your support for a ban on coursing. Sign and share the petitions
Shame on the Sligo businesses who supported a hare coursing meeting at the weekend by advertising in its booklet.
Among the businesses advertising at the Tubbercurry/Ballymena/Kilcreevin/BallyMote coursing meeting were Gillespie’s Menswear & Sport, McCarrick & Sons Auctioneers and Nathy Brennan’s pub.
At the cruelty event, hares ran for their lives as pairs of greyhounds were unleashed to chase them – all for the entertainment of a merciless mob who cheered on the dogs and gambled on which would reach the hare first and force the terrorised animal to change direction.
T Brennan pub (Nathy Brennan’s)
Teeling Street,
Tubbercurry, Co. Sligo With warnings from wildlife experts that the Irish Hare is in trouble, it is now more clear than ever that the species must be given FULL PROTECTION – no hare coursing, no hare hunting, no hare shooting. Urgently contact Minister Josepha Madigan and the National Parks and Wildlife Service and demand that they revoke the 2018-19 hare coursing licence and end all forms of hare persecution.
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
SAMPLE LETTER
(If you have time, please compose your own personal letter. Otherwise, feel free to send the short sample letter below)
Dear Minister Madigan,
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 Tweet to @campaignforLeo
Leave a comment on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/campaignforleo/
Please contact all your local politicians and ask them to push for a ban on this blood sport. Encourage your friends, family and workmates to contact them too. 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.
Express your support for a ban on coursing. Sign and share the petitions
Horrific video has emerged showing dogs attacking a sheep in a field in Clonmel, County Tipperary. According to Action For Animal Welfare Ireland, which uploaded a copy of the video to Facebook, the unleashing of greyhounds, lurchers, patterdale terriers and whippets to attack animals in the area is a regular occurrence. A spokesperson stated that stolen cats and dogs are also among the victims and that the pets are being “used as bait to make the hunting dogs more bloodthirsty”. Anyone with information is urged to immediately contact Clonmel Garda Station at (052) 612 2222.
Video: Clonmel dogs mauling sheep being ‘hushed on by individuals’
Agriland, Jan 7, 2019
by Breifne O’Brien
A somewhat horrifying video has emerged on social media over recent days, which shows a group of dogs attacking a sheep in a field at night.
A torch is being shone on the activity and it would appear that the savagery is being actively encouraged by onlookers.
The disturbing video (albeit with no audio) originally emerged on Snapchat and was later uploaded onto Facebook page Action For Animal Welfare Ireland.
It is believed that the incident occurred on a farm near Clonmel, Co. Tipperary.
A spokesperson for Action For Animal Welfare Ireland explained that the person was trespassing on a farmer’s land with dogs and was encouraging the dogs to attack the sheep.
The spokesperson added that people are stealing pets in the area to use as bait, to make their dogs more “bloodthirsty”.
“These people are killing cats and dogs around the town in Clonmel as well.
A woman in the area had her dog stolen and found it a week later thrown in a field almost dead, after being used as bait. They’re at this every night; it’s a game to them.
“They are going out on farmers’ lands every night with these dogs.”
The dogs being used to attack the animals are “Greyhounds, Lurchers, Patterdales and Whippets and most of them have no licences”.
“Everyone is in fear for their lives of these people,” concluded the spokesperson.
Clonmel gardai investigate animal cruelty incident of dogs attacking a sheep posted on social media
Tipperary Live / The Nationalist, 7 Jan 2019
by Aileen Hahesy
Gardai in Clonmel are investigating incident of animal cruelty
Gardai in Clonmel are investigating an horrific incident posted on social media in which dogs attack a sheep while being egged on by several people.
Gda. Insp. James White said gardai in Clonmel received a complaint about the animal cruelty shown in the graphic video in recent days and are investigating the incident.
He said the social media post shows a sheep being mauled by several dogs which appear to be encouraged by a number of people.
“We are appealing to anyone with information on the location of the incident and the identify of those involved to contact us, ” he told The Nationalist.
Anyone with information that may assist the Garda investigation should contact Clonmel Garda Station at (052) 6122222.
Urge Taoiseach/Prime Minister, Leo Varadkar, to put in place a long overdue ban on fur farming.
Leo Varadkar TD
Department of the Taoiseach
Merrion Street, Dublin 2
Phone: +353 (0)1-6194000 OR +353 (0)1-6403133, +353 (0)1-6194598 (Constituency Office)
Email: leo.varadkar@oir.ie, leoconstituency@taoiseach.gov.ie, finegael@finegael.ie
CC: michael.creed@oir.ie (Agriculture Minister Michael Creed)
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RT @DonMescall: I wholeheartedly support this , Shame on anyone who makes a living from fur farming ! I will do anything I can to help with… 4 hours ago
