C.A.S.H. ACTION
ALERT
PLEASE CROSS POST
Committee To Abolish Sport Hunting
PO BOX 13815, LAS CRUCES, NM 88013-3815
(575) 640-7372
CASH@AbolishSportHunting.com
www.AbolishSportHunting.com
2/15/2012
~~ ACTION ALERT ~~
Ireland's Parliament to vote on a Bill to Ban Hare Coursing
URGENT ACTION NEEDED
Please ask Ireland's Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister to
support the Bill and allow a FREE VOTE!
Two members of the Dail (Ireland's parliament) will shortly be
publishing a Bill aimed at banning the cruel practice of live hare
coursing in the Republic of Ireland. Deputies Clare Daly and Maureen O
Sullivan hope to garner enough support from other members of the Dail to
secure the passage of the Bill into law.
If they succeed, the horrific blood sport in which hares (better
known as Jack Rabbits to North Americans) are used as live bait for
greyhounds will become illegal and the long suffering Irish Hare will be
protected from this organized cruelty.
In Ireland, up to eighty hare coursing events are held each year. The
so-called "sport" is cruel from beginning to end. Wild hares are
captured by gangs roaming the countryside with nets. Some hares become
injured during capture as a result of entanglement in the nets and these
animals are discarded or killed.
A coursing event involves setting pairs of greyhounds after the
captured hares within the confines of a wire-enclosed field or race
course. Each hare has to run towards an escape hatch at the opposite end
of the venue. Though the dogs are muzzled, they can maul the hares, pin
them to the ground inflicting injury, or toss them into the air like
playthings. Many hares are subjected to painful injury and have to be
killed as a result. The injuries include bone breakages that cannot heal
and leg parts getting ripped off.
Even hares released from captivity after a coursing event have not
escaped the ordeal. Many of these succumb to a condition called Capture
Myopathy, a stress-related ailment that may kill them, meaning that they
literally die of fright, the entire unnatural experience including
captivity having proved too much for them.
As if this were not bad enough, hares are also used to blood
greyhounds. Hares that are ill or injured are routinely fed LIVE to the
dogs to enhance their performance in coursing. The aim is to give
greyhounds a thirst for blood and encourage them to run faster in
pursuit of the hares at the official coursing events.
Hare coursing is illegal in Scotland, England, and Wales since 2004
and was banned in Northern Ireland in August of last year. The last
Australian State to permit it was South Australia, which outlawed the
practice in 1985.
We are appealing to anyone who cares about the protection of animals,
in the Republic of Ireland, or elsewhere in the world, to send a brief
message to the two most powerful politicians in Ireland, the Prime
Minister (Taoiseach in Irish), and Deputy Prime Minister (Tanaiste in
Irish), asking them to allow a FREE VOTE in parliament on the
forthcoming Bill to ban hare coursing and to set an example by
supporting the Bill themselves.
It is essential that all members of parliament are allowed to vote in
accordance with their consciences or the Bill cannot be passed. Pro hare
coursing politicians are pressing for members of parliament to be
whipped by their respective parties into rejecting the proposed hare
coursing ban.
The Prime Minister Enda Kenny and Deputy Prime Minister Eamon Gilmore
are also leaders of the two largest political parties in Ireland. They
can determine the success or failure of the Bill.
The Bill is expected to be voted upon by July 2012.
Even a very short message will suffice, simply requesting that all
members of the Irish parliament will be permitted to support the anti
hare coursing Bill if they so wish.
We suggest that you write to, or email Mr. Kenny with a copy of your
message to Mr. Gilmore.
Their contact details are as follows:
An Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Enda Kenny
Department of the Taoiseach,
Government Buildings,
Upper Merrion Street,
Dublin 2 , Republic of Ireland
Email: taoiseach@taoiseach.gov.ie
An Tanaiste, (Deputy Prime Minister)
Eamon Gilmore
Office of the Tanaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade,
Iveagh House,
80 St. Stephens Green,
Dublin 2, Republic of Ireland.
Email: eamon.gilmore@oireachtas.ie
We would appreciate if you would pass this appeal to other
like-minded people/animal protection groups.
For anyone unfamiliar with hare coursing as practiced in Ireland,
here is a brief film:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D58qbzC-GI4&feature=player_embedded
Anti Blood Sports Book free to download and available on Kindle:
For further information on the campaign for the abolition of hare
coursing in Ireland and the challenges faced by campaigners, you might
like to read my book Bad Hare Days. In it I recount the ups and
downs of the long struggle to protect the Irish Hare from the barbarity
that some humans deem to be sport.
The paperback edition of Bad Hare Days is out of print but the
book is now available as a free download and is also on Kindle.
It can be downloaded free of cost at any of the following three
links:
http://banbloodsports.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/bad-hare-days2.pdf
http://banbloodsports.wordpress.com/2011/11/25/bad-hare-days/
www.tinyurl.com/bhdbook
It can be downloaded on Kindle from the following links:
Amazon UK:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bad-Hare-Days-ebook/dp/B0077D1BC4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1328887255&sr=8-2
Amazon USA:
http://www.amazon.com/Bad-Hare-Days-ebook/dp/B0077D1BC4/ref=sr_1_cc_2?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1328887653&sr=1-2-catcorr
