“Despite a dire warning from a renowned wildlife expert, Minister Josepha Madigan has recklessly gone ahead and issued yet another licence for the cruel trapping of hares for coursing” – read Aideen Yourell’s Letter to the Editor in this week’s Offaly Topic…
Hare coursing
Offaly Topic, 23 August 2018
Dear Editor,
In last week’s Offaly Topic, ‘Blast from the Past’ featured a photo of members of Edenderry hare coursing club at their 1960 AGM. How thoroughly depressing and shameful that 58 years on, timid, defenceless hares are still being snatched from the wild for use as live bait for greyhounds at coursing events, courtesy of a licence from our Arts and Heritage Minister, Josepha Madigan.
So in a few weeks, the Edenderry coursers will be out in the countryside capturing hares for their barbaric “sport”. At last year’s coursing meeting in Edenderry, National Parks rangers reported that 14 hares were struck by the greyhounds, while three dead hares were discovered lying in the enclosure after the meeting, and a further four hares were missing, which the Edenderry coursers claimed had “jumped the wire” and escaped.
If Minister Madigan doesn’t care about the undoubted fear, stress, injury and death suffered by hares in coursing, she should at least be mindful of the fact that a wildlife expert signalled back in April of this year that the Irish Hare is in trouble.
Ecologist Dr Karina Dingerkus, who appeared on the RTE Mooney Goes Wild show, stated that “over the past 50 years, [hare] numbers have declined significantly, adding that “we certainly know that numbers have declined” and that “they’re in trouble…we do know that they have been dropping over a long period of time.”
However, it appears that despite this dire warning from a renowned wildlife expert, Minister Madigan has recklessly gone ahead and issued yet another licence for the cruel trapping of hares for coursing, an activity that has been outlawed by our near neighbours in 2010. In fact, prior to the Northern Ireland ban in 2010, hare coursing had been suspended for a number of years because of an identified decline in the hare population there. Hare coursing has also been outlawed in England, Scotland and Wales since 2005.
Sadly, we have only to look at how the plight of the curlew was ignored by successive Ministers with responsibility for wildlife, until the curlew all but disappeared, with hunting of the curlew only outlawed in 2012, when it was on the brink of extinction, so it’s no surprise whatsoever that a blind eye is being turned to the plight of one of our most iconic mammals, the Irish Hare.
Aideen Yourell
Irish Council Against Blood Sports
PO Box 88, Mullingar.
ACTION ALERT
With warnings from wildlife experts that the species is in trouble, it is now more clear than ever that the Irish Hare must be given full protection. Urgently contact Minister Josepha Madigan and the National Parks and Wildlife Service and demand that they revoke the 2018-19 hare coursing licence.
Minister Josepha Madigan
Minister for Culture, Heritage & the Gaeltacht
Phone: +353 (0)1 631 3800
Email: josepha.madigan@oireachtas.ie, ministers.office@ahg.gov.ie, wildlifelicence@ahg.gov.ie, john.fitzgerald@ahg.gov.ie, Gerry.Leckey@ahg.gov.ie, nature.conservation@ahg.gov.ie
Leave a comment on Facebook: https://facebook.com/JosephaMadiganFG
Tweet to: @josephamadigan
John Fitzgerald
Director, National Parks and Wildlife Service
Phone: +353 (0)1 888 3242
Email: john.fitzgerald@ahg.gov.ie
VIDEOS
See the cruelty of hare coursing on our Youtube channel
https://www.youtube.com/icabs
SAMPLE LETTER
(If you have time, please compose your own personal letter. Otherwise, feel free to send the short sample letter below)
Dear Minister,
I am one of the majority who want hare coursing outlawed. I am writing to demand that you revoke the 2018-19 hare netting licence that has shamefully been issued.
In coursing, hares suffer and die at all stages – during the capture, during the time they are kept in captivity and during the coursing meetings where they run for their lives in front of greyhounds. Among the injuries recorded are broken legs, damaged toes and dislocated hips.
I ask you to please act on the wishes of the majority, show compassion and end this cruelty.
Thank you.
Yours sincerely,
[Name/Location]
The Irish Hare is a protected species but an exemption for coursing in the Animal Health and Welfare Act means coursers are not liable for prosecution for their cruelty. Join us in our call to the government to remove the exemption and provide full and permanent protection to this cherished species.
Contact An Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar and ask him to ban hare coursing and give permanent protection to hares.
An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar
Department of the Taoiseach,
Government Buildings,
Upper Merrion St, Dublin 2
Telephone: +353 (0)1-6194020
Email: taoiseach@taoiseach.gov.ie, leo.varadkar@oireachtas.ie
Tweet to: @campaignforLeo Tweet to @campaignforLeo
Leave a comment on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/campaignforleo/
Express your support for a ban on coursing. Sign and share the petitions
Ireland: Ban cruel hare coursing
https://www.change.org/p/ireland-ban-cruel-hare-coursing