Dear Editor,

The killing of a kitten and the creature’s mother that tried to help it by schoolchildren in Drogheda should serve as another wake-up call about the scale of our animal cruelty problem. Families treasure their pets, and yet ignorance of animal welfare and the need to treat animals humanely is rife. And there’s no point in blaming TV for it. It happens every year, every week, with an upsurge around Hallowe’en when fireworks enter the fray.

Why? Apart from a lack of commitment within the education system to focus on good, old fashioned kindness to animals, there is the grotesque example offered by adults who ought to know better. Hare coursing and fox hunting clubs are permitted by law to engage in recreational torture of animals. The Animal Health and Welfare Act specifically exempts these two ghastly forms of animal cruelty. The exemptions were inserted into the legislation at the behest of the politically well connected blood sport lobby.

So, while we expect children and teenagers to be kind to animals, their ‘elders and betters’ chase foxes and fox cubs to exhaustion and agonising death; or stand around at coursing venues, marking their cards or swigging from whiskey flasks as the timid creatures flee for their lives from salivating dogs. At the end of a hunt, supposedly responsible adults smear their faces with the blood of an eviscerated fox, having hacked off its brush (tail) with a pen-knife.

The fans that emerge from their four-wheeled drives to watch hares being terrorised or mauled or tossed up into the air by greyhounds, also see themselves as mature adults and law abiding parents.

But the example they set for the young is a shameful one. Does it not occur to them that children who see adults behave thus might conclude that cruelty to animals is not just acceptable, but a practise to be enjoyed without the slightest qualm?

And do the politicians who amended the Animal Health and Welfare Act to protect blood sports, not feel even a twinge of guilt when they see youngsters follow that inhumane and cowardly decision to its logical conclusion?

Thanking you,

John Fitzgerald

(Campaign for the Abolition Of Cruel Sports)

Lower Coyne Street,

Callan,

Co Kilkenny.