Fine Gaels shame for supporting animal abuse.

national | animal rights | opinion/analysis Wednesday February 16, 2011 10:16 by Bernie Wright - Association of Hunt Saboteurs bigbrownrat at gmail dot com AOHS po Box 4734, Dublin 1 0872651720

Ward Union Stag hunting should stay in our history books .

The Fine Gael party has pledged, in its 2011 election manifesto to reverse the ban on the horrific practice of carted stag hunting.
This barbaric activity was banned by the outgoing government in June 2010 on both animal welfare and human safety grounds.

This barbaric "sport" involved hounding a farmed or semi-tame deer for miles across Meath and North County Dublin until it was cornered by a pack of hounds and mounted hunters. Some stags got hit by traffic, got injured by colliding with fences or barbed wire or collapsed from exhaustion. Many of the stags that were chased died days after the hunt from captive myopathy caused by stress.
NPWS reports reveal one Stag was drowned and another was choked. By the end of a days hunt, one, possibly two tame stags would be found with their tongues hanging out from exhaustion after a two to three hour chase.
The hunted Stag is wrestled into a crate by about six men at the conclusion of the hunt or left out as an outlier to be hunted again.

FINE GAEL will pay at the polls for their anti-animal stance

Apart from the animal rights and welfare concerns, the "sport" carried a high public liability risk to road users and the general public. A number of accidents were caused directly by stag hunting, similar to the much- publicized children in the schoolyard scenario in Kildalkey, Co Meath. Another stag sustained broken bones , hit a car windscreen and had to be euthanized on the roadside ditch last year by a Vet who was called to the scene.
This sad behavior was simply to amuse the 200 or so Ward Union members.

• WE Say ‘SHAME ON FINE GAEL for even considering propagating more animal suffering and abuse. The WARD UNION should have been ended years ago...And now that they are …let the ban continue.

• We have confidence that this ploy for votes will do more damage than good to Fine Gael.’
• We are urging people who care about our wildlife to use their vote to protect animals from the anti- animal policies of both Fine Gael and Sinn Fein.

We appeal to you to;
Please make your voice heard before and after the election to ensure that this manifesto pledge is not implemented. Opinion polls reveal that a majority of Irish people support the ban on carted stag hunting.

Ask FG leader Enda Kenny NOT to bring back stag hunting: enda.kenny@oireachtas.ie

Ask Labour Party leader, Eamon Gilmore NOT to give his party's support to a reversal of the staghunting ban if it forms a government with Fine Gael: eamon.gilmore@oireachtas.ie