Tag: Ireland

Bardot Lends Support to Irish Hare Coursing Ban

French animal rights activist Brigitte Bardot recently sent a letter to the Irish Council Against Blood Sports supporting that group’s campaign to ban hare coursing in Ireland.

Hare coursing is the practice of releasing a hare and allowing two dogs, usually greyhounds, to chase it down. Along with the animals killed, activists also complain that even hares that survive are terrified and traumatized in the process.

Northern Ireland has temporarily halted hare coursing, but it is still legal in the Irish Republic and the government there has said it has no intention of changing the law to ban hare coursing.

Dick Roche, Environment Minister for the Irish Republic, was quoted by Ireland On-Line as saying,

There is no evidence that hare coursing in Ireland adversely impacts on the conservation of hare populations and there are no proposals to change existing arrangements for the licensed netting of wild hares for live hare coursing.

Which, of course, means that hare coursers in Northern Ireland can simply conduct their hare coursing in the Irish Republic, which doesn’t make the ICABS very happy.

Source:

Bardot lends support to hare coursing ban. Ireland On-Line, January 19, 2005.

More Details on Assault on Anti-Circus Protesters

In August I noted a report of an assault on anti-circus protesters in Dublin, Ireland. Irish newspaper The People has published a more detailed account of the attack.

According to activists with the Ireland-based Alliance for Animal Rights, a group of men approached the activists as they protested outside the Circus Vegas in Castleknock, Dublin. The Alliance for Animal Rights’ Bernie Wright told The People,

A group of men approached us and started verbally abusing us. One of them lashed out with his fists at Ciaran [Long]. He suffered heavy bleeding and facial injuries which needed stitching in James Connolly Memorial Hospital. After this all hell broke loose and the rest of the group went for us and grabbed a video camera that we had with us. I myself was punched and kicked and received cuts to my hands. One of our group then managed to break away and phoned the ambulance and Gardai.

One man has been arrested and charged in the incident. If convicted, lets hope he serves a nice long stint in jail — there’s simply no place for such violence.

Source:

Protester is attacked by vicious thug. Tom Prendeville, The People, August 29, 2004.

Anti-Circus Protesters Attacked in Dublin

The Irish Examiner reported on July 8 that a group of anti-circus protester were attacked by a 34-year old man during a protest outside a Dublin circus.

According to the Examiner, a 34-year-old man was arrested in the attack in which a camcorder belonging to one of the activists was damaged and several protesters suffered minor injuries.

Unfortunately, nothing else has appeared on Lexis/Nexis or online about the disposition of the case. If anyone has further information about this incident, please post it as a reply here or e-mail [email protected].

Source:

Demonstrators attacked in Dublin. Iris Examiner, July 8, 2004.

Groups Continue Campaign to Ban Fur Farming in Ireland

Compassion in World Farming, the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and UK-based Respect for Animals have continue their two-year old effort at convincing Ireland to ban fur farming.

CWF and the IPSCA recently released a poster intended for secondary schools and colleges to highlight the alleged evils of fur farming.

Compassion in World Farming is campaigning jointly with the UK-based group, Respect for Animals, for all fur farming to be banned in the Republic of Ireland. As part of our campaign, we have put into place a programme of street events around the country. We have an eye-catching human sized silver fox in a cage and we are collecting signatures on a petition calling on the Agriculture Minister to ban fur farming. We also have pre-printed Shame on Ireland – Ban Fur Farming postcards addressed to the Minister.

According to CIWF, there are currently 6 mink farm and at least 2 fox farms with about 140,000 mink and 1,700 foxes total.

Sources:

CIWF and ISPCA call for ban on fur farming. Online.IE, January 29, 2004.

Campaign to ban fox and mink fur farming in the Republic of Ireland.. Press Release, Compassion In World Farming, January 29, 2004.

European Commission's Proposed Animal Transport Laws

In June, the European Commission released a draft law intended to regulate animal transportation within the European Union.

The proposed law would increase the amount of space that has to be devoted to each animal and would limit transportation to a maximum of 9 hours which would then have to be followed by an 11 hour rest period. That did not please animal activists who want a strict limit of 8 hours maximum total travel time for animals.

Sonja Van Tichelen of Eurogroup for Animal Welfare told Reuters,

They are not thinking of a transport limit but some intermediate solution of nine hours and then 11 hours rest on the vehicle, then another nine hours and so on. It will make every journey a lot longer. It’s unbelievable they can even consider it. It would almost double the transport time from the Netherlands to Greece.

Farmers in some EU countries, such as Ireland, also were displeased, saying the new restrictions would essentially end their livestock export businesses.

The proposed new regulations also ban the transportation of pigs younger than four weeks, lambs younger than one week and calves younger than two weeks would be banned altogether.

Sources:

Brussels draws up tough new animal transport law. The Financial Times (London), June 11, 2003.

Byrne puts livestock trade at risk accusation. Sean MacConnell, The Irish Times, June 20, 2003.

EU drafts new rules on transporting live animals. Jeremy Smith, Reuters, June 16, 2003.

Animal Liberation Front Released Mink In Ireland

In late February the Animal Liberation Front claimed that it released as many as 1,000 mink from an fur farm in Ireland.

Una Heffernan, the owner of the fur farm, disputed that number telling the Kildare Nationalist that although activists opened cages containing more than 1,00 mink, only about 50 were missing after the owners rounded up the mink the next morning.

Of the 50 that were not in their cages and not rounded up, Heffernan said that most were either subsequently returned to the farm or had been shot.

Source:

Farmers and anglers on “mink alert” after break out. The Kildare Nationalist, February 27, 2003.