IRISH COUNCIL AGAINST BLOOD SPORTSCONDEMNS JOHN GORMLEY’S DECISION

“We’re astonished that a ‘Green’would issue such a licence”

MINISTER GORMLEYGREENLIGHTSCOURSING

Blood sport continuing thanksto Green leader’s licence

Newsletter of the Irish Council Against Blood Sports Issue 11, 2009

protect the hare as part of an All-Ireland plan, and placed a tem-porary ban as they have done.By issuing this licence, MinisterJohn Gormley has disregardedthe issue of cruelty. Every cours-ing season, hares are injuredand killed by greyhounds atcoursing meetings and last yearwas no exception, as reportsobtained by ICABS under FOIrevealed.For example, at Enniscorthy - 7hares were mauled by dogs, withsix dying of their injuries;Ballyheighue, Co. Kerry - 6 hareshit and 4 killed; Gorey -11 hareshit, 7 injured and 5 put downbecause of injuries; Doon - 11hares hit, 4 died from injuries,and so the catalogue of crueltycontinues, year on year, as weapproach 2010 in a so-calledcivilised country!

Please express your disap-pointment at John Gormley'sdecision to licence anotherseason of coursing cruelty.Email: minister@environ.iewith a copy to info@greenparty.ie. Tel: 01-8882403. Fax:01-8788640. Alternatively, sendthe sample letter below toMinister John Gormley, Dept ofthe Environment, CustomHouse, Dublin 1, Ireland.

Dear Minister Gormley,I am extremely disappointed at your granting of a licence to the Irish Coursing Club for a cruel activity which the majority of Irish people want outlawed.Facilitating a blood sport in this way is counter to the Irish Green Party's stated opposition to the exploitation of animals. It is also totally at odds with Section 7 of the Irish Green Party's Animal Welfare Policy which was passed by your National Council in 2005 Based on conservation grounds, you had very good reasons to refuse this licence.I do not accept your assertion that "there is no current evidence that coursing has a significant effect on hare populations".Coursing is responsible for mas- sive interference with the species (including disturbance of preg- nant hares, nursing mothers and leverets) and depletes vulnerable population pockets which cumu- latively can lead to extinction.Yours sincerely,[Name and location]

ACTION ALERT

Minister Gormley: Ignoredappeals to protect hares

GORMLEY GRANTSHARE NET LICENCE

THE IRISHCouncil AgainstBlood Sports roundly con-demns the decision made byEnvironment Minister JohnGormley to grant yet anotherlicence to capture hares fromthe wild for use as live luresfor greyhounds in the crueland primitive "sport" of harecoursing.

We are astounded that a"GREEN" Minister would issuesuch a licence, not only becauseof the inherent animal cruelty butalso due to the fact that hares inthe wild are in decline. Last yearMinister Gormley himself issueda report on the Status of EUProtected Habitats and Speciesin Ireland, which rated the con-servation status of the Irish hareas "POOR" with reasons givenas loss of habitat, increasedurbanisation and hunting.This decline continues, as arecent survey published inNorthern Ireland shows, and inresponse to that decline all harehunting across the border hasbeen suspended for the last fiveyears, with Edwin Poots, NIEnvironment Minister extendingthat protection for yet anotheryear in September.It is absolutely incredible thatwhile our Northern Ireland neigh-bours are taking measures toprotect the hare population, our"GREEN" Minister is recklesslyallowing the exploitation of ourvulnerable hares by coursersand other assorted hare hunters.He should have acted in con-cert with our close neighbours to

GREEN PARTYleader JohnGormley ignored an appealfrom an RSPCAVice-Presidentto stop licensing hare cours-ing.

In a 14 September letter, DrCaroline Lucas - who is also aGreen Party MEPfor South EastEngland - urged MinisterGormley to "carefully considerthe detrimental effect of harecoursing with regard to conser-vation and animal cruelty".Dr Lucas condemned the useof hares in the activity, sayingthat "a practice which relies onlarge numbers of hares beingcaptured, many of them pregnantand forced to give birth in captiv-ity, to then be pursued by dogs,possibly pummelled to theground or to die on release backinto the wild cannot possibly beclassed as a sport."as well as countless others fromIreland and around the world,and issued a licence to the IrishCoursing Club for the 2009-10season. The Irish CouncilAgainst Blood Sports has strong-ly criticised his decision.We thank Dr Lucas for support-ing our ongoing campaignagainst this cruel activity. Pleasesee below for more about thischampion for animals.About Caroline Lucas: AVice-President of the RSPCA, she iswidely respected as one of theEuropean Parliament's mostactive animal welfare campaign-ers. In 2007, she was votedPolitician of the Year byObserver readers in their EthicalAwards and in 2008 was judgedone of the Guardian's top "eco-heroes". Find out more at:www.carolinelucasmep.org.uk

PLEASEdownload our "Helpthe Hares" action alert imageon to your mobile phone andforward to your friends by MMSor email. Sending the imagewill help bring this importantaction alert to an even wideraudience.

If necessary, check with yourmobile phone operator for inter-net access/MMS/email charges.Download the image from:www.tinyurl.com/helptheharesImage dimensions: 240x320. FileSize: 34kb.More action alert images soon.

In a direct appeal to the GreenParty leader, she stated: "I wouldurge you to do your utmost tocontinue pressing for an end tosuch blood sports in Ireland and,in the meantime, to refuse torenew any hare coursinglicences for this coming season."John Gormley ignored this plea,

John Gormley ignoredappeal from RSPCA VP

Mobile ActionAlert images

Dr Caroline Lucas: Joinedappeals to John Gormley

SHOW your support for pro-tection for Irish animals fromthe cruelty of blood sports.

Please add your name to ouronline “Ban Blood Sports inIreland” petition now atwww.tinyurl.com/bbspetitionThe petition calls on the IrishGovernment to “urgently outlawhare coursing, fox hunting, cart-ed deer hunting, mink hunting,hare hunting and all forms ofhunting animals with hounds”.Please also sign a petition call-ing on the Environment Ministerin Northern Ireland to give per-manent protection to hares.The petition states: “Numbersof hares have fallen to danger-ously low levels. This vulnerablespecies now exists as a frag-mented population and is nowlocally extinct in many areas.Irish hares breed throughout theyear and any activity includinghunting, beagling and coursingposes a real threat to local popu-lations and the future of thespecies as a whole.”Sign now at www.tinyurl.com/ hareprotection

PLEASE SIGN PETITIONSFOR THE IRISH HARE