The RHD2 virus which threatens the future of the Irish Hare has been highlighted on RTE’s Six One News, with viewers asked to report suspected cases of the disease.
The report outlined that RHD2, which is extremely infectious and lethal, is now widespread across the country, with infected animals found in Counties Clare, Cork, Leitrim, Offaly, Wexford and Wicklow.
A spokesperson for the National Parks and Wildlife Service described the horrific effect it has on infected hares and rabbits
“It leads to massive internal haemorrhaging,” NPWS Head of Ecology Dr Ferdia Marnell, stated. “The animals, when they keel over - which they can do quite suddenly - can bleed from the mouth and the nose.”
He said that it is “very virulent”, with infected animals dying within 3 to 5 days.
Featured in the report was the Wexford Wildfowl Reserve where 2 hares who had died from RHD2 were found.
This discovery led to the suspension of licences for cruel hare coursing. Sickening footage of a greyhound being released to chase after a hare on a coursing field was shown on the RTE report, which ended with a call for members of the public “to remain vigilant as the National Parks and Wildlife Service tries to contain the spread of RHD2 and prevent catastrophe in our rabbits and native Irish Hare population”
URGENT ACTION ALERT
It is imperative that Minister Madigan and her department does everything possible to save the wildlife from a disease the National Parks and Wildlife Service warns could prove “catastrophic” for the Irish Hare. They must immediately announce a total and permanent ban on hare coursing and all forms of hare hunting, including beagling, harrying and shooting. Given that the disease is highly infectious and can be “easily spread” - including in the faeces and urine of infected animals as well as on human clothing - a ban on foxhunting (which involves hunters on foot and horseback terrorising foxes across multiple farmlands and large areas of countryside) must also be announced.
Contact Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Minister Josepha Madigan and urge them to announce a total and permanent end to hare coursing, hare hunting and foxhunting.
Email "Permanently end cruel hare coursing, hare hunting and fox hunting NOW" to josepha.madigan@oireachtas.ie; leo.varadkar@oireachtas.ie; finegael@finegael.ie
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; finegael@finegael.ie
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Josepha Madigan
Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht
Phone: +353 (0)1 631 3800
Leave a comment on Facebook: https://facebook.com/JosephaMadiganFG
Tweet to: @josephamadigan
Fine Gael
51 Upper Mount Street
Dublin 2
Tel: 01 619 8444
Email: finegael@finegael.ie
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Ireland - Ban cruel hare coursing
www.change.org/p/ireland-ban-cruel-hare-coursing