Coillte, the state-owned forestry company, has today confirmed that it does NOT allow hare coursers to trap hares on its property for use in their cruel bloodsport.

Responding to a query from ICABS, a Coillte spokesperson stated: “In relation to access to Coillte lands for the purposes of trapping hares for hare coursing, Coillte facilitate requests for activities on our lands through a licensing and permit system and we currently do not permit any licences for removal of Irish Hare from our lands.”

ICABS is delighted at this announcement from Coillte, although there is some concern over its use of the word “currently”. We are calling on Coillte to give a commitment that coursers will NEVER be allowed to capture hares on its property and that vulnerable hares will be afforded permanent protection on all Coillte land.

ICABS got in touch with Coillte about the issue earlier this month after we obtained disturbing documents which revealed that the Department of Agriculture contacted the forestry company ON BEHALF OF COURSERS to ask if permission to catch hares on Coillte property could be arranged.

According to the minutes of a November 2017 meeting held at the Deparment of Agriculture’s headquarters in Dublin, “the Irish Coursing Club stated that Coillte lands are largely free from predators and therefore have a thriving hare population.”

Shockingly, the Department of Agriculture agreed to “contact officials in Coillte and ascertain if permission might be granted to the Irish Coursing Club to capture hares”.

This entirely inappropriate move was undoubtedly beyond the Department’s monitoring remit. Its role in the “coursing monitoring committee” is to oversee the activities of coursers, not assist them in their shameful activities.

In an email enquiry sent to Coillte in March 2018, a Department of Agriculture representative wrote: “I am contacting you in connection with a request I received from DJ Histon, CEO of the Irish Coursing Club (ICC). He wishes to ascertain if there is a mechanism whereby he can request permission to net hares for the purposes of regulated hare coursing on Coillte-owned property. Hare coursing is managed and regulated by the ICC and the organisation consists of 89 affiliated clubs across the country. While the regulation of coursing is chiefly a matter for the ICC, the organisation is subject to the control and direction of Bord na gCon under the Greyhound Industry Act, 1958. Representatives from this Department sit on the hare coursing monitoring committee together with officials from the ICC and the National Parks and Wildlife Service. The committee was established to monitor developments in coursing which is a regulated activity under the Wildlife Acts.”

Later that day, Coillte acknowledged the email, saying it would “get some background in here around the precedence for this and any implications for Coillte under Sustainable Forest Management Certification”

When no further reply was issued, the Department of Agriculture official pursued the matter again on 2nd July 2018 - “Just checking in with you regarding my earlier query in relation to the possibility of granting permission to the Irish Coursing Club to net hares on Coillte-owned lands.”

The following day, Coillte announced it decision. In an email back to the Department of Agriculture, Coillte’s Head of Recreation wrote: “I have checked with the relevant staff here and I’m afraid we will have to decline this request. Given the extent of recreational access to our forest properties at this point (practically every property has some level of walking or cycling use at this point), we do not see that this activity could be carried out, without impacting on general access for recreation. We do try to licence as many activities as we can, but on consideration, we cannot facilitate this request.”

We thank Coillte for keeping coursers out of its property and providing a haven for one of Ireland’s most persecuted creatures - a species which wildlife experts fear is in trouble, with numbers declining. We are renewing our appeal to the government to ban hare coursing.

ACTION ALERT

Thank Coillte for making its land off-limits to cruel hare coursers. Ask the company to put in place a permanent policy of disallowing coursers from accessing hares on its property.

Fergal Leamy,
CEO, Coillte
Head Office
Newtownmountkennedy,
Co. Wicklow
Email: info@coillte.ie
Tel: 1890 367378

With warnings from wildlife experts that the Irish Hare is in trouble, it is now more clear than ever that the species must be given FULL PROTECTION - no hare coursing, no hare hunting, no hare shooting. Urgently contact Minister Josepha Madigan and the National Parks and Wildlife Service and demand that they stop licensing coursing and end all forms of hare persecution.

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

SAMPLE LETTER
(If you have time, please compose your own personal letter. Otherwise, feel free to send the short sample letter below)

Dear Minister Madigan,

I am one of the majority who want hare coursing outlawed. I am writing to demand that you stop licensing this cruel bloodsport.

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
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/

Please contact all your local politicians and ask them to push for a ban on this blood sport. Encourage your friends, family and workmates to contact them too. Visit the Oireachtas website for names of TDs and their email addresses http://www.oireachtas.ie/members-hist/default.asp?housetype=0&HouseNum=32&disp=mem Write to your TDs at: Dail Eireann, Leinster House, Kildare Street, Dublin 2. Tel: 01-618 3000 or 1890 337 889. Please also arrange a meeting with your TDs at their local clinics.

Videos: Ireland's hare coursing cruelty

https://www.facebook.com/banbloodsports/videos/1492231004225786/
https://youtu.be/Z7X1S_Nng3I
https://youtu.be/Q7njqNGKyiI