1 minute action alert - Email your protest PLEASE

babylady · 1 minute action alert - Email your protest PLEASE

Please ask the Irish Bishops Conference to urge a Wexford church to
reject a donation from hunters. Email "Please Reject Donation From
Hunters" to columbacentre@iecon.ie, info@catholicbishops.ie or phone in
your message to +353 (0)1 505 3000

Thank you for your help with this action alert.
If you would like to read more about our appeal to the Irish Bishops
Conference, please scroll down.

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Church asked to reject hunters' "blood money"
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The Irish Bishops Conference has been asked to intervene after a Wexford
parish accepted a donation from a hunting group. In a letter of appeal,
ICABS highlighted that hunting is contrary to the Catechism and that
clergy should never accept money from those involved in terrorising and
killing God's creatures.

Brought to the bishops' attention was an Irish Field report from
February 28th 2009 which tells of how the hunt set off from Mayglass
Church on a "great day's hunting" which brought them across a road,
stream, dyke and river in their merciless pursuit of foxes. Alongside
the article was a photograph of the parish priest standing next to the
pack of killer hounds before the hunt began and shaking hands with one
of the mounted hunters.

In a report outlining our objections, the Wexford People quoted the
parish priest as saying that he was happy to accept the hunt's donation
(full report below).

The hunt in question - the Killinick Harriers - is responsible not only
for the killing of wildlife but also for the violent savaging of a cat
(a favourite animal of Pope Benedict XVI, we hasten to add). A report
from the Wexford People in January outlined how the family pet was "torn
to pieces by the hounds" while they were on the trail of an unfortunate
fox. The traumatised homeowner told of how the dogs "came up the
driveway and pinned the cat against the garage door and massacred it".
The side of her house was left splattered with blood.

Please respond to our urgent action alert below. Thank you.

ACTION ALERT - SAMPLE LETTER

Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference
Columba Centre
Maynooth
County Kildare, Ireland

Email: columbacentre@iecon.ie, info@catholicbishops.ie
Tel: +353 (0)1 505 3000. Fax: +353 (0)1 601 6401

To whom it concerns:

I am writing to express my concerns following the acceptance by Mayglass
Church in Wexford of a donation from a hunting group.

There is no doubt that the appalling terrorisation and killing of
animals during hunts is contrary to the Catechism of the Catholic
Church. Paragraph 2418, for instance, makes it clear that "it is
contrary to human dignity to cause animals to suffer and die
needlessly." It is entirely inappropriate, therefore, for clergy to
accept money from these groups.

The hunt which made this donation was previously featured in the Wexford
People after their hounds violently savaged a cat to death (cats, it is
appropriate to add, are one of Pope Benedict XVI's favourite animals).
The People report from January outlined how the family pet was "torn to
pieces by the hounds" while they were on the trail of an unfortunate
fox. The traumatised homeowner said that the dogs "came up the driveway
and pinned the cat against the garage door and massacred it". The side
of her house was left splattered with blood.

I urge the Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference to please intervene to ask
the clergy in Ballymore and Mayglass to reject this "blood money" and to
instead publicly condemn the cruelty of hunting.

Thank you very much. I look forward to your reply.

With best wishes.

Yours sincerely,

[*** Name / Location ***]

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Cruelty and the Catechism
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The cruelty of foxhunting is clearly condemned in the Catechism.
According to paragraph 2418, "it is contrary to human dignity to cause
animals to suffer and die needlessly." Paragraph 2416, meanwhile, states
the following: "Animals are God's creatures. He surrounds them with his
providential care. By their mere existence they bless him and give him
glory. Thus men owe them kindness. We should recall the gentleness with
which saints like St. Francis of Assisi or St. Philip Neri treated
animals."

Chased to the point of exhaustion and viciously ripped apart, foxes and
other creatures suffer the most horrendous deaths during hunts. The
orchestration of this animal abuse by hunts is utterly contemptible and
undoubtedly, as one Bishop Bellord affirms in A New Catechism of 1901, a
"very cowardly and disgraceful sin".

dara

I wish we had a hunt up here - at this time of year the place is pickled with emaciated foxs.
Last year we lost 7 lambs to foxs. This year I've shot 5 foxs within 100 metres of my house.

quarryman

The main problem is that fox hunts are ineffectual at controlling the population. They mostly kill domestic animals and terrorise the wildlife of the area. I would love to give one of those fat Masters of the Hunt a 5 minute start on foot , then my dogs and I would "pursue" him to a sporting conclusion.

I hate to have to admit it but Dara's method is the most effective and most humane.