Anti-hunt group offers large cash reward in bid to catch illegal stag hunters!

by Good idea Sat Dec 10, 2011 03:02

Hope this works.

by Orla Sat Dec 10, 2011 12:24

The AOHS deserves congratulations for its sensible and mature approach to illegal stag hunting . Thanks to all at Indymedia Ireland as well for allowing AOHS the space to bring this matter to the attention of the public.. It’s really up to us all , whether as professionals in the fight against crime, as members of our local communities or as concerned individuals , to stand together against those who commit these sorts of illegal acts .

Just remember , if you are out driving or walking in the countryside and see anything of a suspicious nature , or if you come across something you think may be illegal , report your concerns to the gardai as soon as you can . Although surveillance plays an increasingly important role in modern policing methodology , monitoring equipment and cameras by themselves are not enough . An Garda Síochána still needs the active assistance of the public in bringing the perpetrators of crime to justice. It’s never a good idea to leave the reporting of crime to “somebody else” , because one day that “somebody else ” may be yourself !

In this day and age , we are all affected by crime in one way or another , whether directly as crime victims or indirectly as taxpayers . With dwindling Garda resources , cutbacks and even the closure of some garda stations in remoter areas of the country , the public is increasingly vunerable and needs to be sensibly vigilant to crime and its consequences at all times . You can report incidences of illegal stag hunting ,or any other type of illegal activity , by telephoning your local Garda station or by dropping in there for a chat . Alternatively you can contact the Garda Confidential line at any time .

Ring the Garda Confidential Telephone Number 1800 666 111.
• Ring Crimestoppers using the confidential free phone number 1800 250 025.

Reporting a Crime?

The following web page explains how to report a crime to An Garda Síochána and what happens after you have made this report. The information provided includes advice and guidelines from An Garda Síochána and its criminal justice system partners, including the Courts Service and the Director of Public Prosecutions. You can find further information on the work of these agencies by accessing their website through the Useful Contactssection of the Information for Victims area of the An Garda Síochána website.
http://www.garda.ie/Controller.aspx?Page=7979&Lang=1

by Hunter Fisher Sat Dec 10, 2011 21:44

Would you crowd of interfering so and so's stop trying to ruin our rural lifestyles - go sort out some city drug, prostitution, robbery, rape.  Country pursuits are a great way of life.

Next thing you know I'd be a criminal for taking photos like these!

A good days work!

by smalldick Sun Dec 11, 2011 16:39

does killing beautiful wild animals with your big gun and hi tech fishing equipment make you a big man?
People like you are just bullies relying on the lack of protection given to other species to brutally kill them.
Big man.

by Damien M - PW Mon Dec 12, 2011 12:55

"People have been hunting with dogs for thousands of years, I dont use or need any gun."

True, but I doubt they were doing it for amusement or 'sport'. Twas the landed gentry who donned ridiculous looking garb and saddled out.

by Rational Ecologist. Mon Dec 12, 2011 17:14

Hunting animals for sport, I think is another representation of the value system of our insane culture, however, that is not to say that hunting per se is a natural thing. Predation and hunting is natural. I was a vegan for 20 years, however, my health has suffered as a consequence due to specific nutritional defeciencies(b12, iron, insufficient protein). I would suggest that the meat industry is both morally and ecologically disastrous. I was reared on pheasant, wild rabbit and fish, combined with our own veggies. Hunting for "fun" is the pursuit of the sadist. There are no easy answers to this one. I feel very conflicted myself. I know what I would do. and have done, if I saw a fox hunt on my land: I would stop it and call the Gardai for tresspass.

by Getting twisted Tue Dec 13, 2011 00:12

Hunter Fisher. May I take my hat off to you. Your points are so pointless it brings a smile to my face.
And now that it looks like you're trying to distance yourself from your original posts,  it just gets better. 

So you're saying you don't hunt for sport? But you do like to take pictures of animals who have been killed and post them on public forums.
You also have come onto this thread and told the thread poster "Would you crowd of interfering so and so's stop trying to ruin our rural lifestyles". This thread is hoping to stop the illegal chasing of a deer raised on a farm by a pack of dogs, scores of horses and some people who like to dress up like clowns.
Posting snuff pictures and defending the ward union sport hunting suggests that you do like sport hunting?

Of course in Ireland, no type of hunting is necessary and all types hurt the animals. Whether hunting occurs in the wild is hardly a point. Humans are supposed to be able to tell the difference between right and wrong. Most of us think it's wrong to hurt an animal where there is no need.

So Hunter Fisher, I can only assume that because you make this comparison with wild animals so readily that you don't shop, don't live in a house, don't have central heating, don't drive, don’t involve yourself in modern human society.  I do wonder where you got the PC, camera and eletricity though!! Or is it that your pointless point is that you want to have the best of both worlds?

by Misterd - Na Tue Dec 13, 2011 02:36

Noble effort I must say. I agree illegal hunting is horrible but some illegal hunters are at it wholesale which means there is a market for this. Should be traceable system like with pork and beef. To secure a conviction needs a lot of proof. Seeing some shoot a deer ain't enough. You would need to report every last little detail to the national parks service and they would need to find the deers carcass. Even if they do find it the shooter can just claim he shot it somewhere else where he was licenced. I guess only real way is if you can get a Garda there before they leave with the deer. Just lastly I do agree with culling. Where I live if not kept in check deer with jump right into your car on the road so for safety I agree with keeping numbers in check but only from a road safety point of view

by Hunter Fisher Tue Dec 13, 2011 09:45

@ Getting Twisted.  Well you must have been well on it.

"Posting snuff pictures and defending the ward union sport hunting suggests that you do like sport hunting?

My first post says nothing pro or anti stag  hunting or coursing - read again and you'll see I said Next thing you know I'd be a criminal for taking photos like these! - meaning that you city slickers should butt out of rural affairs before ordinary folks are not allowed to hunt on their own lands.

Its not a snuff picture its an everyday occurence and my heart bleeds for your worry over wild animals, if its any consolation the springer only cacthes about 1 in 3 birds but he's better at the rabbits.

I do live in a house and I do shop, I just don't buy mass produced/processed rubbish.

I'm assume that after you got twisted last night you'll be needing a "hair of the dog" by now, so goodbye and slainte.

by Cruelty to animals posing as sport Tue Dec 13, 2011 13:55

This hunter, and others like him, all have one thing in common: they only think of cruelty as sport when others are on teh receiving end. Not one of them would put himself in the place of his victim. What contest is there when an armed man pits himself againsta bird or an animal? It's not sport because the creature has no chance whatsoever.

The hunter gets a kick from watching dogs hounding a hare or fox and harming or killing these animals. Yet no hunter would enjoy the sensation of teeth sinking into his posterior or any other part of his body, or the pain associated with being disembowelled. But they think it's great craic when it happens to another creature.

The stag hunters are trying to get around the ban. Anyone who reports an illegal staghunt will be doing a service to our persecuted wildlife and helping to counteract the twisted concept that cruelly killing or tormenting an animal amounts to "sport".

Hares in captivity awaiting the terror of the coursing enclosure

The "sport" of foxhunting

The "sport" of hare coursing

by JoeMc Tue Dec 13, 2011 17:26

"The hunter gets a kick from watching dogs hounding a hare or fox and harming or killing these animals"

Hunters enjoy the fraternity of riding around the countryside with other hunters, tradition, getting drunk, telling sexist jokes ,farting arrogantly in public, fantasizing about being what Brendan Behan called the “horse aristocracy “ and things like that . There probably are some out-and out- sadists in the hunt community - perhaps there are more of them than in other sections of the population - but I've known hunters who are not like that at all .Painting lurid caricatures of your opponents may help motivate the already-convinced but rarely convinces anybody else .

Most hunters don’t actually get their kicks out of causing suffering to the animals they hunt anymore than meat-eaters take a sadistic pleasure from the knowledge that they are eating parts of what was once a live sentient animal every time they go into McDonalds. It’s not the pleasure taken in causing suffering to animals, but the indifference towards that suffering that is the main problem.

by Elsie - One of IMC Tue Dec 13, 2011 17:54

Hi Folks,

We've no problem with you disagreeing with each other; we encourage healthy debate here. However, can you please leave the abusive comments off the site and stick to good old fashioned arguing.

Thanks,
Elsie.

by Damien M - PW Tue Dec 13, 2011 23:42

"Most hunters don’t actually get their kicks out of causing suffering to the animals"

Er..yeah they do. Or do they cover their eyes just at the last minute as the fox is being ripped to shreds? Do they nip off for that brandy just as the terriers are sent down the foxhole?

I disagree that eating meat is sadistic, this is a ludicrous assertion and warped logic and something to be expected from the cultured gent.

"It’s not the pleasure taken in causing suffering to animals, but the indifference towards that suffering that is the main problem."

So go on then, why not drag hunt? Anyone that has seen a vixen play with her cubs and then contemplates killing thjem for amusement is sick. Do you sport hunters somehow blame society for allowing this perverse sadism to exist, in turn allowing you to fulfill this evil fancy? Must go now, there's a jolly old fellow in tight pants and a red jacket pattin me on the back telling coarse jokes and what a great lad I am. Tally ho!

by Rational Ecologist. Wed Dec 14, 2011 10:59

To kill and be killed in order to maintain the homeostasis of the greater biological community is natural and necessary. Animals have to kill to eat, there's little point offering a quorn sausage to a Cheetah, however, I do make a distinction between a quick kill to eat and the long sadistic ritual of the hunt. The paternalistic, male/human expression of domination and control. Look at the parallels with male-perpetrated Domestic Violence. That is the embodiment of who has the power and who doesn't. However, other species like the Orca and the cat(large & small) display a proclivity for cruelty(anthropromorphising?). To elevate humans or indeed to deify us to being at the top of some hierarchy is to, in effect, remove us from Nature. That then leads to the eco crisis we are confronting. Has anyone read 'The Vegetarian Myth' by Lierre Keith? She has been verbally abused by Vegans for her point of view, despite having been a Vegan for 20 years. It is not black and white, however, I do despise Coursing, fox hunting and so on.

by JoeMc Wed Dec 14, 2011 18:34

Danien, I'm certainly not a supporter of fox hunting . You'll never get your message over if you keep ascribing the basest of motives to people who disagree with you .

by lefty Wed Dec 14, 2011 19:57

"Animals have to kill to eat, there's little point offering a quorn sausage to a Cheetah, however, I do make a distinction between a quick kill to eat and the long sadistic ritual of the hunt."

regarding the "quick kill", thats not the whole truth at all in the realm of wholesale animal slaughter for food. Thats the illusion perpetuated by the food corporations that they'd like the little kiddies of their customers to believe along with the tooth fairy and father christmas. When was the last time you visited a slaughterhouse?  or a factory pig farming or factory chicken rearing establishment?  Death is just the merciful slow release at the end of a horrible period of continualf suffering that often doesn't go quite as planned due to cost efficiencies in the process. you need to google and check out the vids.

But we are more than just animals. We are sentient human beings. Omnivores. We have an extra bit of brain at the front that other animals don't have which allows us to create systems of philosophical ethics, studies of right and wrong, to empathise with the unnecessary suffering of other creatures. Surely with that great gift also comes RESPONSIBILITY?

Or do we just see all that then let our selfish desires override all our great awareness?

And how much WORSE than the lowly fox or other animal predator, driven largely by necessity and instinct does that CHOICE to ignore what we know in favour of self gratification make us?

That is the tragedy of humanity. We have been given the means to know what is the better action, to be more enllightened than other animals. But we CHOOSE to be as cruel and violent as they are, not out of survival and necessity as drives them, but "because we like the taste with sage and onion stuffing. "

What a devastating indictment of mankind that truly is.

All this is not just some abstract moralisation either.  Xmas is upon us. We are about to engage in our annual orgy of slaughter of millions of factory farmed turkeys, reared mostly in the manner previously alluded to. Capitalism guarantees that corners are cut on the welfare of the voiceless to save money.

Ask yourself, Is that what I am?  Do I really want to be a part of this?  As an omnivore, Do I actually need to get my nutrition in this manner?. Reject the selfish morality and lack of empathy of "hunter fisher" and his ilk. Lets try and rise out of the swamp just a little. Our indifference to the treatment of the voiceless we like to eat and our indifference to the treatment of our own species are not altogether unrelated!


http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/1122016/....html

just to give you some idea how widespread our "humanity" is. US factory farm data.

a typical factory farm landscape.

a closer view of the voiceless animal inhabitants of one of our innumerable auchwitz's

just one inhabitant. up close.

mmm...tasty with sage and onion stuffing. Our simple argument for discarding ethics. and a withering indictment of humanity.

by The insider Wed Dec 14, 2011 20:31

I am intrested in spilling the beans on all I know about fireldsports...Who do I contact???

by squealer Wed Dec 14, 2011 23:06

Insider, if you are really serious, (which I sense you may not be)
then just post an informative article here.
The reward is a cleaner conscience and the knowledge that you are shedding light on practices that debase humanity and yourself along with it, and you may save the lives of beautiful wild creatures that might otherwise be killed unnecessarily for "sport" by these bozos.

by Rational Ecologist. Thu Dec 15, 2011 09:36

In my first post I wrote the following: "I would suggest that the meat industry is both morally and ecologically disastrous". I don't eat factory-farmed food both from an animal welfare and a health point of view and indeed an environmental point of view. I think that small amounts of meat in an omnivorous diet is the way to go. I was a vegetarian for over two decades, mostly for ethical reasons, however, it does have health implications, I'm afraid. There is no defending factory farming or bloodsports, however, in my posts I was trying to explore the subject in an open-minded fashion. To say that animals do not have an ethical dimension or are "lowly" smacks of human chauvinism. I happen to believe that animals do have complex emotions, language and social life. These are the reasons I regard myself as being a lover of animals.

by lefty Thu Dec 15, 2011 19:45

"however, it does have health implications, I'm afraid."

Personally I haven't eaten meat since the age of 12, and with no health problems. In fact I'm in excellent health (i'm nearly 50)
Saying you can't go vegan / vegetarian without health problems is untrue IMHO and amounts to a standard line from the meat industry PR brigade.  You just have to eat a balanced diet. Its just habit after a while. So I would strongly disagree with this assertion. But you do need to read up on nutrition a little bit so you know what you need to eat to stay healthy if embarking on being a vegan or vegetarian. However its quite easy to do these days. And its actually cheaper than eating meat too IMHO.

As to the comment about animals exhibiting complex behaviour, I agree. Never said they didn't.
But we do have some more brainpower and that extra gives us language and the ability to empathise and write and read complex ethical analyses and with that ability and added awareness comes an extra responsibility to be ethical in our actions. IMHO Choosing not to do the "right" thing is worse than not having a choice and doing the wrong thing. In practice, The extra brains don't seem to make us any better. In fact they seem to help make us more cruel and destructive. But we do have the potential to be better.

As for factory farming, eating locally grown organic animal produce is light years ahead of eating factory farmed produce in terms of ethics. If you must eat meat then thats the best way to do it IMHO so I applaud your choices mr R.E.

Whilst very laudable, You don't need to be perfect or a stringent vegan to make a difference. Every attempt to be more ethical in your eating habits is better than no attempt. Reduce your meat intake, Have meatless days, eat only locally farmed animal produce, shun multinational food corporations offerings, eat only free range eggs, etc etc. Its all good.

I think we agree on far more than we differ on mr R.E. 

all the best
lefty

by Rational Ecologist. Fri Dec 16, 2011 12:40

Hi Lefty. I think it is pretty clear that we are largely in agreement. I would urge anyone who is thinking of going down the vegetarian route to invest in a few good books and recipe books. I myself eat very little red meat and eat fish sparingly, the majority of the week, I eat veggie supplemented with some high quality eggs. It can be done but it requires vigilance, particularily for women as there may be a higher demand for iron. Good quality fruit and veg' are vital. Cheers.

by The insider Fri Dec 16, 2011 20:09

But no I do nothing anymore without good cold cash!! I dont give two flips about "beautiful creatures" or clean consicioussness or whatever other rubbish.Cash is the name of the game.. And after reading what these bozos are offering a thousand quid????....Forget it! Pity as I could give them quite abit of info on illegal practises and criminal activity involving dog fighting, and it being done under the cover of a humane association sponsored by animal lovers in the midwest which involves drugs and a cheif superintendant.

by Trees for the Forest Sat Dec 17, 2011 09:29

The Insider, if what you're saying is true then I'm suprised you missed the contact details on the article. But here they are again. "Bernie Wright, PRESS OFFICER ph 0872651720" ....That's IF what you are saying is true and not just an excuse to stir something up.