Join our protest against hare coursing and greyhound racing
17 January 2017

The national finals of cruel hare coursing are due to take place over three days at the end of this month. On the eve of this cruelty festival, please join us outside Dail Eireann on Friday, January 27th, 1-3pm, for a protest against both hare coursing and greyhound racing.

Hare coursing is a blot on the Irish landscape, with thousands of timid hares trapped from the wild, courtesy of a licence from Arts & Heritage Minister Heather Humphreys and used as live bait for greyhounds to chase. We have filmed hares this season being mauled and battered by muzzled dogs, but our TDs who voted to retain this barbarism last June have once again turned a blind eye to the cruelty. They apparently couldn't care less about these vulnerable creatures being terrorised, injured and killed.

The spotlight is now also firmly on the cruel greyhound racing industry, which has been propped up by the Irish taxpayers to the tune of nearly a quarter of a billion euro since 2001, including €16 million in the latest budget. This, despite the government being aware of the appalling cruelty inherent in the industry, including dog injuries and deaths at tracks, the mutilation and dumping of dogs who aren't quick enough to win, the blooding of dogs and the "disappearence" of thousands of greyhounds every year.

Among the recent victims of the greyhound industry are an emaciated greyhound dumped in Tipperary with her ears burned with acid (to remove markings which would identify the owner) and the tip of her tail hacked off, an ex-racing greyhound found in Galway with ribcage protruding and infested with fleas and worms and a pregnant greyhound discovered brutally killed in a cemetery in Clonmel.

Greyhounds can live up to 14 years on average, but the life-span of a racing greyhound in Ireland is just 3-4 years - when they are no longer winning on the tracks and coursing fields, many are executed. Others, considered not good enough to win here, are exported to tracks and coursing clubs in Asia, where there is little or no animal welfare legislation.

We need to send a message to those inside Dail Eireann that animal cruelty and abuse have no place in a civilised country and must be banned.

PROTEST DETAILS

Friday, January 27th 2017
1pm to 3pm
Outside Dail Eireann, Kildare Street, Dublin.
Facebook Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1269014063178453/?active_tab=about

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