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1. John Fitzgerald February 22, 2012

   Campaign for the Abolition of Cruel Sports
   Lower Coyne Street, Callan, County Kilkenny, Ireland
   Email: jfitzg3@eircom.net
   Phone: 00 353 56 77 25543
   …Appeal… Ireland’s Parliament to vote on Ban Hare Coursing Bill…
   …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.
   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. Stephen’s 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 this link:
   http://banbloodsports.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/bad-hare-days2.pdf
   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

   Thanking you,
   John Fitzgerald,
   PRO,
   Campaign for the Abolition
   Of Cruel Sports

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