The Irish Council Against Blood Sports (ICABS) announced that on Friday 16th May, the Minister for Agriculture, Simon Coveney, would host an animal welfare conference to explain the contents of the new Animal Welfare Act, which has recently come into law.
A protest was organised outside Dublin Castle to spotlight the failure of the legislation to outlaw some of Ireland’s worst acts of cruelty. Minister Coveney is quite proud of the new Animal Welfare Act which he says will modernise many existing laws and make them fit for purpose in the 21st century.
But there is a glaring omission in this new Act which Minister Coveney should be thoroughly ashamed of – his decision to continue to exempt the cruel bloodsports of hare coursing and fox hunting from prosecution. These activities have no place in the 21st century, and Minister Coveney should realise that, but a few votes from the minority who engage in this cruelty are more important than doing the right thing, it seems. ICABS joined with other groups from around Ireland for a peaceful protest on 16th May .
Irish Council Against Blood Sports.
Website: www.banbloodsports.com
Animal Rights Action Network (ARAN) adds:
Whilst this new Act is welcomed, it does little or nothing for the most pressing issues facing animals in Irish society today.
ARAN and Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) teamed up yet again for another peaceful rally outside of Dublin Castle to hit home the message to Minister Coveney that sending Irish animals to Libya – a country that has little or no animal welfare guidelines for slaughter – is reckless and wrong.
Website: www.aran.ie
Photos of the demo:
www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.683695818332801.1073741838.212791988756522&type=1
John Carmody of ARAN reports:
As you know, Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney held his conference on the new ‘Animal Health and Welfare Act 2013’ to brief interested parties on the legislation and how it can help “protect” animals – but not surprisingly some of the most pressing issues facing Irish animals were ignored. On the day, ARAN and CIWF partnered up for a lively demonstration and march for the issue of live exports. Click here to see the exciting footage. Before the day even began national radio station Newstalk was covering our campaign on their bulletins with county radio stations such as Kildare FM also covering the story amongst others. Today.ie and Broadsheet.ie also covered the event. The Irish Independent ran a good article on the day itself along with RTE.
As people started to gather, so did the press, helping to bring our important message to an even bigger audience. We marched through the streets of Dublin onto the Department of Agriculture to leave our message but also to hear speeches from various people and groups including compassionate Irish actor, Rachel Pilkington about the other issues facing animals.
The day was also actively supported by Maureen O’Sullivan TD, Clare Daly TD (Members of the Irish Parliament) and MEP Paul Murphy.