Ecologists concerned about Disney filming on Sceilig Mhichil shouldn’t take too much comfort from the announcement that National Parks and Wildlife Service staff will monitor the operation.

It’s a ‘bloody’ disgrace that four Irish MEPs refused to support a motion to end annual EU subsidies to the cruel bullfighting industry. 

Arts Minister Heather Humphreys rightly condemned the shooting of a peregrine falcon in Wexford, stating that it was “intolerable” for wildlife to be persecuted and that it “harmed our reputation as a country that values its wildlife”.

A number of Irish celebrities including Imelda May and actors Simon Delaney and Saoirse Ronan are among those who have put their names to a campaign to end fur farming in Ireland.

Gina Hetherington of PAWS was privileged to get an invitation to Minister Coveney’s animal welfare conference held recently in Dublin Castle (Letters, May 29)

The Irish Council Against Blood Sports has called on Iarnród Éireann to prosecute a Kilkenny hunt for trespass after hounds were killed in a collision with the Dublin to Waterford train.

The Irish Council Against Blood Sports has urged Limerick Racecourse to stop hosting an annual hare coursing meeting at its venue.

A recent series of unprovoked attacks by hunt dogs has left numerous pets around the country seriously injured, according to The Irish Council Against Blood Sports.

Despite acknowledging that the digging out of foxes and the use of terriers to attack them is “unacceptable“, Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney has so far refused to outlaw these most abhorrent acts.

IN ITS efforts to re-introduce an extinct species, the Golden Eagle Trust is sadly advocating the killing of existing species. The trust’s website discourages farmers from threatening eagles by illegally poisoning foxes and suggests that they instead shoot them.

ANTI-coursing campaigners have vowed to continue their fight despite the likelihood of their only political allies being voted out of the Dáil.

UP to 25,000 visitors are expected to pour into Clonmel, Co Tipperary, this week for the biggest coursing event of the year but tomorrow they will be met by anti-blood sports protesters.

Green Party leader John Gormley launched a withering attack on Labour TDs tonight accusing them of cynically abandoning principles in favour of pick and mix politics.

DESPITE an earlier admission that it would be doomed to failure, the Department of the Environment’s National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) is incredibly proceeding with a €1 million mink massacre.

IRISH hares are 18 times more abundant in areas managed by the Irish Coursing Club (ICC), a study has found.

Protestors are due to gather outside Powerstown Park in Clonmel today, as the annual hare coursing festival gets underway.

IT was horrifying to see an actual veterinary surgeon defending cruel coursing (Letters, October 6). Tommy Kearney’s claim that coursers “hold the welfare of the Irish hare very close to their hearts” is just plain wrong.

THE Irish Council Against Blood Sports commends Aer Lingus for recently removing a matador from an online graphic promoting flights to Europe.

The Irish Council Against Blood Sports has today appealed to landowners to refuse permission to coursing clubs to net hares from their lands for use as live lures before greyhounds at enclosed coursing meetings.

A GOVERNMENT TD has clashed with the Irish Council Against Blood Sports (ICABS) over the stormy issue of granting licences to net hares for the coursing season which commences next month.

A REPORT issued recently by Environment Minister John Gormley revealed shocking news about the state of our wildlife and their habitats, with some species being described as being on the brink of extinction, while the status of others is “poor”, including Ireland’s hares and otters.

REPRESENTATIVES of animal protection groups will today protest at the finals of the national coursing meeting in Clonmel.

THOUSANDS of hare coursing fans are due to descend on Tipperary for the annual three-day national championships.

Thousands of hare coursing fans are due to descend on Ireland for the annual three-day national championships.

INDEPENDENT TD Tony Gregory may have breached data protection laws by passing a woman’s correspondence to a group that vehemently opposed her views.

ONE of the country’s biggest estate agencies has been drawn into a row between anti- and pro-hunt campaigners.

ALL’S fair in love and war, as they say. Or is it? Hunters and campaigners against bloodsports are never going to see eye to eye.

A HUNTING Association of Ireland — Cork regional meeting was held on January 10 at the Convention Centre, Silversprings Moran Hotel, Tivoli, Cork.

ANTI-BLOOD sports campaigners are planning to mount protests at next month’s national coursing meeting in Clonmel for the first time in more than a decade.

The Irish Council Against Blood Sports has welcomed the restrictions applied to the Ward Union Hunt Club licence issued in Co Meath for the hunting of deer.

IN his diatribe against what he terms “vicious mink”, Cllr Michael Gleeson calls for an urgent elimination of this “most unwelcome” species (Letters, September 27).

ENVIRONMENT Minister John Gormley’s imminent ban on stag hunting is the first shot in a wider war on “rural traditions”, hunting enthusiasts have warned.

It has been confirmed that the Minister for the Environment has received an application from the Irish Coursing Club to catch hares in nets from their habitats in time for the coursing season.

The Irish Council Against Blood Sports is hitting out at Paddy Powers bookmakers over apparently accepting bets on bull-fighting.

Aer Lingus has today been accused of encouraging cruelty to animals by promoting the practice of bullfighting in Spain.

THE current investigation by gardaí into a greyhound blooding incident in a Dublin park is a numbing reminder that the practice continues despite being highly illegal.

WE fully agree with racing pundit John McCririck, who has roundly condemned the use of the whip in horseracing.

Animal welfare groups are holding a protest against bloodsports today outside a hare-coursing event in Kilkenny.

ONE of the most inhumane animal traps ever devised has recently been flooding into the Irish market.

AN unusual census is due to get underway later this year when a head count is carried out on one of the country’s most secretive residents.

Minister for the Environment Dick Roche has rejected attempts by gun clubs to gain access to protected nature reserves, according to the Irish Council Against Blood Sports.

Jimmy Woulfe

Animal welfare campaigners today called for the hare coursing finals at Powerstown Park, Clonmel, to be the country’s last live coursing event.