Letter published in Irish Examiner and other Irish newspapers:
The plight of those sixteen malnourished puppies found in County Galway was heartbreaking, a shocking reminder that puppy farming still thrives, as it will continue to do until people stop buying dogs from unscrupulous dealers instead of adopting them from rescue centres.
Unfortunately this incident is just part of the bigger scandal that is our attitude as a nation to animal welfare. Not a week goes by without horses being found starving and abandoned on roadsides, or shallow graves of unwanted greyhound being unearthed...horses and dogs that have outlived their value to sulky racing and the track respectively.
Lack of enforcement of existing laws is lamentable, but the fact that other laws permit the most horrific forms of animal cruelty is beyond sickening. A license will soon be granted by a government department allowing coursing clubs to net thousands of hares for the upcoming season.
Those timid creatures, which grace our countryside and ought to be fully protected, are instead deemed fair game by our politicians for use in a blood sport that most other EU countries have banned. The only guards you’ll see at a coursing event, when the hares are being terrorised before a frenzied mob, are the ones directing traffic outside the baiting venue.
Throughout August and September, cub hunting -or cubbing- will be organised nationwide in preparation for the official hunting season later in the year. Coverts known to contain litters of fox cubs will be encircled by hunters, some mounted and others on foot. The sportspeople will stand about sipping port in the early morning as their novice hounds are “blooded”. The pack is released to attack and kill the unsuspecting cubs. Any animal attempting to escape the circle of death is beaten back with whips or sticks.
Other wild animals face death, not in the wild, but in the throes of unnatural captivity. Every year, more than 200,000 mink are gassed on Irish fur farms with carbon monoxide so the skin can be ripped from their bodies. This happens following six months of stressful confinement in tiny cages.
A Bill to outlaw this practise will come before the Dail after the summer recess and it remains to be seen whether compassion will prevail over greed and political expediency.
Mahatma Gandhi said that “the greatness of nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” Where does that leave Ireland? We need to update legislation to protect all animals, domestic, wild, and agricultural, and properly enforce the laws already on our statute books. Animals have done nothing to us to deserve the cocktail of horrors we inflict on them. Let’s make a start at easing their plight.
Thanking you,
John Fitzgerald
