(Au and UK) Please help ban blood sports

[Guest guest]

Hi,

The NSW Government in Australia is considering legalising and

legitimising blood sports including hunting animals with dogs, bows and

arrows

and traps and other cruel means through the proposed Game Bill 2001

(see http://www.iinet.net.au/~rabbit/gamebill.htm )

 

Meanwhile, Scotland has banned the hunting of foxes with dogs and

hare coursing (delierately putting captured wild hares in with dogs

so dogs can kill them, sometimes tearing them apart alive).

 

Britain has not yet bowed to pressure to end hare coursing and the

disgusting Waterloo Cup which features hare coursing is taking place

now.

 

Hares and rabbits are defencless creatures at the bottom of the food chain.

Their only defence is to run. The cruelty and heartlessness of the barbaric

British minority who continue to enjoy blood sports is a blot upon humanity.

 

Please write to Tony Blair, Prime Minister in Britain and ask that he ban

hunting

and ban hare coursing,

 

Thankyou for your support on this issue and please see articles below and

petition.

 

Kind regards, Marguerite

 

(1)Comments and petition to sign re Waterloo Cup hare coursing in UK

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Subject Redknapps Call for End to Hare Coursing

 

Redknapps Call for End to Hare Coursing

 

Celebrity couple Jamie and Louise Redknapp have joined the

campaign to ban hunting by urging Tony Blair to outlaw one of

Britain's cruellest organised blood sports events, 'The Waterloo

Cup' in Lancashire.

 

'The Waterloo Cup' is held over three days, commencing today.

It is one of the biggest events in the hunting calendar,

attracting hundreds of blood sports enthusiasts every year to watch

and gamble on hares being chased and caught,

sometimes in a living tug-of-war, by dogs.

 

Jamie and Louise are backing the CPHA

(Campaigning to Protect Hunted Animals) in sending a

clear message to Downing Street - follow Scotland's lead

and ban hunting with dogs in England and Wales.

 

Jamie Redknapp said: " The Waterloo Cup should

be consigned to history. Hares should not be chased

and torn apart for amusement in this day and age.

This cruelty must be banned. " Louise Redknapp

said: " I cannot understand how anyone could be

entertained by watching dogs savage hares, said Louise.

" Other so-called sports where animals are set on other

animals for human amusement were

banned long ago. The Waterloo Cup is cruel,

outdated and unnecessary and I hope to see it banned in

the very near future. "

 

A new MORI poll*, shows that an overwhelming 81% of people

think hare coursing should be illegal.

 

ACTION: If you have not already written, please write to Rt Hon

Tony Blair MP, Prime Minister (10 Downing Street, London SW1A 2AA)

or your MP (House of Commons, London SW1A OAA) asking for

this cruel sport to be banned immediately.

 

We are running an e-petition on our site - if you have not

yet signed please go to www.banhunting.com and sign on now!!

 

MORI, commissioned by IFAW and the League Against Cruel Sports,

interviewed a nationally representative quota sample of 1,013 adults aged

16

+ by telephone between 18-20 January 2002. Data were weighted to reflect

the known population profile.

 

 

(2) Comments re Waterloo Cup in UK from League Against Cruel Sports

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Public protests continue and pressure builds on the Government

 

The League Against Cruel Sports today organised a peaceful and well

attended protest at the Waterloo Cup, the season's principal hare coursing

event.

Around 150 protestors, led by a drummer, carried placards and banners and

marched to the entrance of the coursing field.

 

Inside, greyhounds were being set to chase and kill hares for the pleasure

of spectators. Coursers claimed that the object of coursing is to test the

dogs' speed, agility and stamina. But the rules of the National Coursing

Club still award a point to a dog that kills a hare " through superior dash

and skill. "

 

In evidence submitted to the Government's Burns Inquiry, the Universities

Federation for Animal Welfare had post-mortemed 53 hares killed at hare

coursing events. None of them had been killed by 'a bite to the neck' and a

number had to be killed by the handlers when they were retrieved from the

dogs.

 

It is now time to end this cruelty. Please write to Tony Blair MP,

10 Downing Street, London SW1A 2AA asking him to fulfil his manifesto

pledge to " enable Parliament to reach a conclusion on this issue " by

bringing the Hunting Bill back to the House of Commons.

 

If hare coursing and hunting with dogs can be banned in Scotland, they can

be banned in England and Wales too.

 

www.league.uk.com

 

 

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