Better to care for refugees’ pets than fund animal cruelty

I SEE that some TDs have reacted with anger to the revelation that the Government has spent up to €1million a month on Ukrainian refugee pet accommodation.

While the expenditure might be open to criticism, I’d prefer to see the money spent on those innocent animals – little cats and dogs lucky enough to escape a major war zone – than on our cruel greyhound industry, which was allocated a whopping €19million in Budget 2024.

How much more responsible it is to be helping these animals than to be propping up a loss-making industry that turns dogs into mere commodities and results in thousands of them going missing each year, or being doped to the eyeballs to enhance their track performance, or killed or abandoned once they’re no longer wanted, or exported to countries where animal welfare laws are non-existent.

Also, I’d much rather see the Government cosseting Ukrainian pets than doling out licences to coursing clubs to snatch hares from the countryside for a ‘sport’ that shames our nation. How much more satisfying it is to see happy and well looked-after cats and dogs, or to be comforted by them in moments of isolation, than to watch an animal run for its life on a coursing field or be tossed about like a rag doll.

I suggest that those outraged TDs forget about Ukrainian pets and instead tackle what amounts to State backing for organised animal cruelty. JOHN FITZGERALD, Callan, Co. Kilkenny.

Release all hostages

MUCH of the media reporting about ceasefire talks in the IsraelGaza War focuses on the Israeli hostages held by Hamas, with no consideration given to those Palestinian hostages held by Israel – most held without any judicial review, and many since long before October 7, 2023.

The numbers of Palestinians held since then have only escalated, so that now over 7,000 have been arrested in the West Bank alone and are being held in Israeli detention centres. Interned Palestinians exceed 9,400 and include 200 children, some as young as seven years old.

At least 3,600 are in so-called ‘administrative detention’, a system whereby no charges are brought against those detained, a contrived punishment system perfected by the former Apartheid regime in South Africa. Palestinians can thus be repeatedly kidnapped and held indefinitely, essentially as political prisoners, aka hostages.

In a report dated March 9 from the Swiss-based Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, detainees taken from the Gaza Strip who are being held by the Israeli army are being subjected to premeditated murder and arbitrary execution.

Ill-treatment, degrading disregard of human dignity, deprivation of the most basic rights, and horrible forms of torture, including those that result in murder, are documented.

A report in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz notes the deaths of 27 Gaza Strip detainees during questioning in Israeli military detention centres following severe torture and mistreatment. Dr Mustafa Barghouti, general secretary of the Palestine Initiative, reminds us that nine prisoners died in Guantánamo in 20 years while 27 Palestinian detainees have died within six months in an Israeli concentration camp in the Negev desert.

Calls for the release of all hostages must include the thousands of Palestinians illegally held in Israeli detention centres.

JIM ROCHE, Irish Anti-War Movement,

Dublin 1.

Referendum reruns?

NEWS reports over the past few days have informed us that there is a high possibility of the Patent referendum not taking place as planned in June, alongside the local and European elections.

The Government appears to fear its rejection by the electorate, after the two referendum defeats in March. My understanding is that the Government is legally obliged to hold this poll, which now looks likely to be pushed out beyond the next general election.

If the referendum is defeated when it eventually takes place, I wonder will the electorate have to vote again, as was the case with both the Nice and Lisbon treaty referendums, until the ‘correct’ result is achieved. EAMONN O’HARA, Manorcunningham,

Co. Donegal.

Tourism footprint

TOURISM is responsible for about 8% of the world’s carbon emissions – and as more and more people travel each year, this footprint is growing.

Contestants on TV quiz shows often say that if they won, they would use the money for foreign travel. I recently heard one contestant say he wanted to add to the 60 or 70 foreign holidays he had already taken.

No doubt he would be the first to complain about any flooding where he lives because of the impact of global warming.

REG BARRITT, by email.