Pro- Blood Sports body has nominating powers to Seanad!

international | animal rights | opinion/analysis

Tuesday September 17, 2013 21:29

by Ban Blood Sports in Ireland

Another reason to scrap the Senate...

Animal Lovers asked to back Seanad abolition if pro-blood sports organization continues to have nominating powers!

Seanad voted for this...after intensive lobbying by one of its nominating bodies

Various reasons have been advanced for the abolition of the Seanad. As campaigners against blood sports in Ireland, we have a special grievance against this elitist “Upper House” of parliament. The so-called “National Association of Regional Game Councils (NARGC) is included in the Agricultural Panel on the Register of Seanad Nominating Bodies.

Whilst claiming to be committed to wildlife conservation, NARGC has an official policy of supporting the vile practices of hare coursing and fox
hunting, two horrific blood sports that opinion polls indicate are opposed by the vast majority of the Irish people.
Wildlife conservation is one thing. We all need to be mindful of the importance of our multi-faceted wildlife heritage and the complex life-enhancing eco-systems that sustain it.

But blood sports are about cruelty to animals dressed up as fun and entertainment, as shown on the site www.banbloodsports.com
Sport is about fair competition. Setting two greyhounds after a gentle hare is akin to a pair of rugby players tackling a child. Thirty dogs chasing one fox (a wild dog) is about as fair as pitting an All-Ireland champion hurling team against one struggling hurler. In other words, these activities are as far removed from true sport as one can get.

When the government opted to exempt hare coursing and fox hunting from prohibition under the new Animal Welfare Act earlier this year, NARGC gloated about this “achievement” on its official website. It had lobbied strongly for the continued legality of these blood sports.

That the association should enjoy such influence over one of our houses of parliament while no animal welfare/rights organization in the State has Seanad nominating powers is, in our view, profoundly disturbing and undemocratic.

Anti Blood sport organizations and campaign groups will be asking the public via Facebook, Twitter and other social media, to back the abolition of the Seanad...unless the "Upper House" finds the courage to give NARGC its walking papers and sever all links with that organization!

What some call “sport”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=...C-GI4