Letter Response

BryanL

this is again from the guy that was writing about banning guns afetr the shooting in the states.it's the second anti hunting letter in the examiner this week.i don't think these guys should be given a free rein.



Dear editor,
I was surprised at the level of disinformation contained in John Fitzgerald’s letter 12/6/07.Most of his statements are in direct conflict with the current studies of Hares in Ireland.
The Irish hare Lepus timidus hibernicus is now recognised as a subspecies genetically distinct from the Scottish Mountain hare and more closely related to mainland European populations of Lepus timidus((Hamill, 2001). It is for this reason that it’s included in Ireland’s red data book.
He states that Hare density is uniform throughout the island of Ireland, studies by Dingerkus and Montgomery(2002) showed that although hares were widespread north of the Border they occurred in low density.
There has been 4 populations surveys of Northern hares since 1994, the first a daytime survey estimated the population at 8,250.ten years later the population was estimated to have increased up to 86,900 (Tosh et al spring ‘04). Despite this ten fold increase the then Northern Ireland minister for the Enviornment decided to ban all hare hunting .repeating his survey methods , Tosh et al ’05 , found that after a year when there was no hunting that for the first time in 10 years hare numbers dropped by about 20,000.
The facts make very interesting reading and suggest a strong link between hunting and a healthy population of wildlife, maybe that’s why Mr Fitzgerald and his fellow campaigners won’t share them with the public.
Yours Sincerely
Bryan Long( assistant huntsman of the Riverstown foot beagles)
Glanmire


12 June 2007

Irish hare is now an endangered species

THE recent conviction of a Co Westmeath-based coursing club for trapping hares without a licence serves as yet another reminder that our hare population is threatened by a practice that involves netting and baiting these gentle creatures for ‘sport’.


Apart from such obvious breaches of the rules governing hare coursing, there is absolutely no excuse for this barbaric cruelty. It is not a form of pest control — the hare is utterly harmless — and the sport has no conservation value whatsoever. Its sole purpose is to entertain at the expense of extreme and unnecessary animal suffering.
While opposition to hare coursing is based mainly on animal welfare concerns, there is another reason why it should be outlawed immediately.

The Parks and Wildlife Service and Ireland’s red data book on wildlife both warn that the Irish hare is now an endangered species.

It was the proven scarcity of hares in Northern Ireland that prompted the authorities there to suspend all coursing activities two years ago.

As hare density is uniform throughout the island — the border being totally irrelevant in this instance — it is reasonable to expect our own incoming environment minister to enact a hare preservation order similar to that in force up North.

John Fitzgerald
Lr Coyne Street
Callan
Co Kilkenny

Kramer

I wonder how many hares are killed by foxes?

There's one way to solve his "endangered species" problem - more fox hunting . Then again, he's probably anti that too :rolleyes: .

Good factual reply there Bryan although those idiots will never see sense.

thelurcher

Very good reply Brian - hope they print it.

BryanL

thanks guys i reckon there will be a lot of letters to be written in the future,greens with a bit of power can't be good.their policies won't include any form of hunting.
Kramer,foxes are the number on predator followed by......badger(who would have guessed,mostly on leverets) and birds of prey.
Bryan

Clare gunner

Same letter in the Sunday or Mondays Irish Indo as well.
The guy must either get a mention in the AGM of an Post every year for the amount of stamps he buys.Or fax machine companies give him a new machine every year as he wears out one a year.:D
Basic propaganda tactic,take somthing that is somwhat true make alot of little lies around it and then appeal to the emotive side of people.
As Churchill said "A lie is half way round the world before the truth gets it's boots on."
Let them get into power.They are already wavering on core issues like Shannon,live exports,etc.Plus some of their wackier ideas like spaying and returning feral cats to the wild:rolleyes: .should go down well with us taxpayers.
Also it will hopefully BUCK UP the rest of us in the fieldsports sector to start taking them seriously and to get a positive PR system in operation.

Kramer,
Oh yes,he is that.If he had it his way we would all be shoved into the new ovens in Auschwitz. :mad:

BryanL

well i guess i'll cut and paste to the Indo. then.i suppose if we all write a reply very now an then it'll get a few people,politicians and these anti nuts something to think about
it winds me up that they seem to have free range in the media.He had that anti gun letter printed in 2 local resident papers in Cork.it's worth flagging any anti gun/shooting etc. stuff thats going on here on this board too.
grassroots is the only way to go,the recent gun licence is a good lesson.
Bryan

bunny shooter

BryanL wrote:

thanks guys i reckon there will be a lot of letters to be written in the future,greens with a bit of power can't be good.their policies won't include any form of hunting.
Kramer,foxes are the number on predator followed by......badger(who would have guessed,mostly on leverets) and birds of prey.
Bryan

Firstly, excellent reply !

FF would obviously seel their grannys for power ! And before anyone presumes I am anti FF, I VOTE FF !!!!!!

Clare gunner

What info would you like on them?.Been keeping a close eye on them since 1985.

BryanL

info. on whom
Bryan

Clare gunner

On the anti hunting ,shooting,fox hunting,coursing ,crowd.
I have been collecting info on them since 1985.As you said in your post it is worth flagging any info on them..Doing this a looong time,and have aquired quite abit of info about the main players.:D
In a nutshell,they are all one and the same bunch,just call themselves different things on what ever their current trendy campain is on their mass mailed /faxed letters.Or somwhat small noisey protests.

They have along way to go before they would be anything on the creditability of the UK antis.Here they have managed abit of nusisance[like superglueing the locks of the NARGC office:rolleyes: ],[IALF]removing a sign to a stag hunt meet,[[IALF]releasing a few hundred mink into the wilds,and making a few loud comments in the car parks of hunt balls.[DAHS],brake fluiding furriers cars,[IALF]Or getting their kit off in public places to highlight animal cruelty in circuses,abbitoirs,etc[ARAN].
In other words mostly like a boil on the Ass. Irritating,but can be lived with.:rolleyes:

BryanL

just to give some interesting backround to the otter hunting.

Micheal O'Sullivan U.C.C. did a thesis on otters of the blackwater river in the late 80's(from memory '88) at that time the only population of otters hunted by hounds were in Munster,
during the 60's,70's and into the 80's, DDT or Dichloro-Diphenyl-Trichloroethane a pesticide caused a drop in otter numbers as well as distemper all over europe,the population least effected and the population which recovered the quickest was in Munster!!!!!!!!!!!
although he didn't like hunting he felt there was a very strong link between it and this healthy population.
Otterhunting was never banned,in 89 the otterhunters felt the water levels were too low to hunt fairly and switched to hunting mink as their numbers were increasing so quickly at the time(provided for us by the anti's)
Bryan

civdef

Bye bye troll.

Sparks

Troll deleted, responses deleted. Guys, this is what's going to happen every time one of these muppets crops up, but the more of you that answer, the more material they have to misquote and twist. So just hit the "report post" button (the one marked on the left there) and let civ or me or rew deal with them, okay?

Tear strips off them by PM if you *really* have to.

bunny shooter

Long live sparks, troll killer extraordinaire:p

Kramer

Sparks wrote:

So just hit the "report post" button (the one marked on the left there) and let civ or me or rew deal with them, okay?

Is there a problem with the post report system then? I reported the first post on Friday night . No action was taken until Sunday evening.

Sparks

That's not a problem with the post report system Kramer, that's a problem with myself, rew and civ actually having lives outside of boards. A serious problem, I'll grant you, but herself would have some opinions on a "solution" to the problem

thelurcher

O'Sullivan approached the hunts for help at the time - they thought him how to track - among other things - I don't think he ever credited them though :mad:
Also interesting to note that it was the otter hunting packs that petitioned the government to only allow the hunting of otter under license - as they were being decimated by trapping etc.
Otters eat fish - fishing is big business - fishermen trap otters to protect fish stocks. Very visible hunts drawing the major rivers in the provence every Sunday - fishermen see that the otters are being controlled - so no need to trap them. The hunts didn't actually catch anywhere near the numbers that were trapped so the numbers rise. Over simplified I know :rolleyes: but that's my take on it.

I think we should start a petition for the Greens to reissue the hunt licenses just so we can protect the otter - what are the chances

For anyone interested there was another study carried out recently - good to see their numbers are doing well but how long will that last with the way river banks are being stripped and the dwindling fish stocks - direct link to pdf -
http://www.npws.ie/media/Media,4979,en.pdf