Thank you to everyone who attended our peaceful demonstration outside the offices of Fine Gael, what a hugely successful day and evening! At 3pm that afternoon, ARAN members staged a press photocall with TD Maureen O Sullivan and Noel Gregory brother of late TD Tony Gregory. The campaigners held placards featuring a rather hideous and strange looking ‘Kenny’ with a tagline that was on everyone’s mind, ‘Fine Cruel’.

That evening at 6pm some 80 supporters attended the two hour event to let Fine Gael know just how angry people are about the party pushing for the repeal of the Ward Union Stag hunt ban. ARAN believes, should Fine Gael get their wicked way, and are successful in repealing this only scrap of legislation, it could very well spell a seriously bad precedent for future animal protection legislation in this country and that our movement must fight this tooth and nail. Click here to see some short footage of the evening demonstration. Earlier that morning, ARAN campaigner, John Carmody, posed a question to Fine Gael leader, Enda Kenny, live on Pat Kenny’s RTE’s radio one programme. Click here to listen. 

Since word broke of Fine Gael’s plans, ARAN has been staging a round the clock assault on the party to let everyone know where Enda Kenny stands. Hundreds of our supporters in every corner of the country have been inundating the offices of Fine Gael with telephone calls and emails of protest most could of simply sat back and left it to someone else, but instead, people nationwide started taking action. Our supporters from as far afield as Canada and the USA have also been supporting our efforts. We supported a protest in Galway, continued public outreach on the streets and on social networking sites such as Facebook and also the lobbing of local councillors and TD’s in almost every county. Thanks to the work of ARAN, other groups and members of the public, we can safely say that our campaigning has seriously impacted the votes of Fine Gael’s side which was our main intention so as not to get the party an overall majority. We’re not out of hot water just yet. We need to focus our attention on making sure that the Labour party—who are now in a coalition government, stick to their commitment and keep the Ward Union hunt ban. If you can help, please contact us immediately.

Also this week we exposed Irish designer, John Rocha for using fur like sheepskin in his designs, a huge article in The Irish Daily Mail ensured everyone knew about his callous behaviour. Prior to that, ARAN was on Dublin’s 98FM to speak about slaughterhouses and vegetarian/veganism and also Cork’s Red FM to speak about the problem of homeless and abandoned animals. Of course that’s just a snippet, please get involved today.

ARAN would never be a voice for animals if it were not for the dedicated and loyal support of our many members and supporters. Take action to help animals, attend our events, make a donation and start doing something, anything, today!