The Irish Coursing Club defied government requests to release 1,200 captured hares during Level 5 lockdown. The hares were only released after the coursers were issued with a final warning that their suspended licence would be revoked if the hares were not set free - Read Aiden Corkery’s report in today’s Business Post...
Irish Coursing Club refused to free hares following lockdown
Coursing body defied several government requests to release 1,200 animals from captivity back into the wild
Business Post, 13 December 2020
By Aiden Corkery
Political Correspondent
The Irish Coursing Club defied a series of government requests to release 1,200 hares it had captured ahead of the last Covid-19 lockdown before eventually backing down, new documents show.
All coursing events were suspended when the government announced the level 5 lockdown on October 21. Less than a week later, the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) wrote to the Irish Coursing Club (ICC) requesting that any hares it had captured should be released.
John Fitzgerald, principal officer with the NPWS, said that with the lockdown expected to last until at least December 1, any hares which had been captured “will have been held in captivity for at least six weeks”.
“In terms of animal welfare and the conservation of this protected species, I am to request that coursing clubs would release captured hares back into the wild as soon as possible.”
Fitzgerald said he had been directed to write to the ICC by Darragh O’Brien, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, under whose remit the NPWS falls.
However, correspondence obtained by the Business Post under the Freedom of Information Act shows that the ICC disregarded the request to release the hares, along with four further reminders from the NPWS.
It eventually agreed on November 6 after it was warned that its “netting licence” for capturing hares could be revoked within days if it did not comply.
The documents show that two days after the request to release the hares was issued, an NPWS conservation ranger said she was told by her local coursing club that the ICC’s executive committee had decided “they would not be releasing hares at this stage”.
The ranger had contacted the club to arrange the release of ten hares it had captured with nets. She was also told that the club didn’t want any NPWS staff entering its grounds without a Covid-19 mitigation plan in place.
In a follow-up email to DJ Histon, the ICC’s chief executive, on October 29, Fitzgerald warned that any direction not to release the hares “would be in direct contravention” of the request two days earlier.
Fitzgerald added that NPWS rangers were recognised as essential workers under the Covid-19 regulations and that it was a condition of the licences issued to the ICC to net hares that clubs should cooperate with them.
Histon responded a day later that Fitzgerald had told him in a phone call on October 21 that clubs would be able to keep any hares they had captured. He also said that in a further phone call Fitzgerald had failed to offer any indication that he would be about to order the release of all captured hares.
Histon added that in a letter on October 29, the minister had indicated that questions over whether coursing and the netting of hares could continue during Covid-19 should be addressed to the Minister for Agriculture and not to him. He indicated that the ICC did not intend to release the hares.
“ICC clubs are providing all appropriate care to netted hares and will continue to do so,” he said.
In two further letters to Histon on October 27 and November 4, Fitzgerald restated the NPWS’s position that the hares should be released.
On November 5, Histon repeated his assertion that Fitzgerald had told him verbally that the hares could be held onto, as well as his view that decisions on whether coursing could proceed during Covid-19 was a matter for the Minister for Agriculture and not the Minister for Housing.
In a final warning later that day, Fitzgerald said that any further refusal to release the hares would result in the ICC’s licence to capture hares being revoked. The licences had been suspended at that time due to Covid-19 but were expected to resume when level 5 ended.
“The ICC has not complied with these requests of the Minister and has signalled no intention to do so – rather it has conveyed that it does not intend to do so,” Fitzgerald wrote.
“In the circumstances, I am to convey to you that the licences to net and tag hares which are currently suspended will be revoked next Monday if all hares currently held by ICC clubs are not released back into the wild by then,” he said.
Fitzgerald added that he was not aware of making any previous commitment over the phone that the ICC would be allowed to hold onto its hares.
He said that while the Minister for Housing did not have a role in deciding which sporting events would be allowed under level 5, it was his responsibility to decide whether hares should be released or not.
Histon responded a day later and said that ICC clubs had been instructed to “release all hares in captivity as per the direction of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage”.
On November 29, the government announced that coursing events could resume without spectators from December 1, with a licence allowing the ICC to net hares issued on December 3.
Histon rejected the suggestion that the ICC had repeatedly defied the NPWS’s requests when contacted by the Business Post.
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ICABS ACTION ALERT
Urge Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tanaiste Leo Varadkar to respect the wishes of the 77% majority of Irish citizens who want coursing banned.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin
Email: micheal.martin@oireachtas.ie; info@fiannafail.ie
Phone: +353 (0)1–618 4350 or +353 (0)21-432 0088
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michealmartintd/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/@MichealMartinTD
Tanaiste Leo Varadkar
Telephone: +353 (0)1-640 3133
Email: leo.varadkar@oireachtas.ie; finegael@finegael.ie
Tweet to: http://www.twitter.com/@LeoVaradkar
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LeoVaradkar
Join us in urging Heritage Minister Darragh O’Brien and Minister of State Malcolm Noonan to suspend the licence which allows coursers to capture hares for their barbarity.
Minister Darragh O’Brien (Fianna Fail, Dublin Fingal)
Tel: (01) 618 3802
Email: darragh.obrien@oireachtas.ie; minister@housing.gov.ie
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DarraghOBrienTD
Twitter: http://twitter.com/DarraghOBrienTD
Malcolm Noonan TD (Green Party, Carlow Kilkenny)
Minister of State for Heritage
Tel: (01) 6183148
Email: malcolm.noonan@oireachtas.ie
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/votemalcolmnoonan1/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/noonan_malcolm
Contact all TDs and urge them to back a ban on coursing. Visit the Oireachtas website for contact details https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/tds/?term=/ie/oireachtas/house/dail/33
Contact Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, Green Party, Sinn Fein and Labour Party TDs and ask them to back a ban on cruel hare coursing.
Fianna Fail TDs
john.mcguinness@oireachtas.ie; niamh.smyth@oireachtas.ie; brendan.smith@oireachtas.ie; aindrias.moynihan@oireachtas.ie; michael.moynihan.td@oireachtas.ie; micheal.martin@oireachtas.ie; michael.mcgrath@oireachtas.ie; Charlie.McConalogue@oireachtas.ie; sean.haughey@oireachtas.ie; jim.ocallaghan@oireachtas.ie; darragh.obrien@oireachtas.ie; jack@jackchambers.ie; anne.rabbitte@oireachtas.ie; eamon.ocuiv@oireachtas.ie; james.lawless@oireachtas.ie; sean.ofearghail@oireachtas.ie; sean.fleming@oireachtas.ie; barry.cowen@oireachtas.ie; willie.odea@oireachtas.ie; niall.collins@oireachtas.ie; Robert.Troy@oireachtas.ie; dara.calleary@oireachtas.ie; thomas.byrne@oireachtas.ie; marc.macsharry@oireachtas.ie; jackie.cahill@oireachtas.ie; mary.butler@oireachtas.ie; james.browne@oireachtas.ie; jennifer.murnaneoconnor@oireachtas.ie; cathal.crowe@oireachtas.ie; james.oconnor@oireachtas.ie; padraig.osullivan@oireachtas.ie; christopher.osullivan@oireachtas.ie; paul.mcauliffe@oireachtas.ie; john.lahart@oireachtas.ie; cormac@cormacdevlin.ie; normafoley1@eircom.net; joe.flaherty@oireachtas.ie; Stephen.Donnelly@oireachtas.ie
Fine Gael TDs
JohnPaul.Phelan@oireachtas.ie; Heather.Humphreys@oireachtas.ie; joe.carey@oireachtas.ie; david.stanton@oir.ie; colm.burke@oireachtas.ie; michael.creed@oireachtas.ie; Simon.Coveney@oireachtas.ie; joe.mchugh@oireachtas.ie; richard.bruton@oireachtas.ie; Eoghan.Murphy@oireachtas.ie; Paschal.Donohoe@oireachtas.ie; Alan.Farrell@oireachtas.ie; emer.higgins@oireachtas.ie; neale.richmond@oireachtas.ie; josepha.madigan@oireachtas.ie; colm.brophy@oireachtas.ie; leo.varadkar@oireachtas.ie; jennifer.carrollmacneill@oireachtas.ie; Ciaran.Cannon@oireachtas.ie; hildegarde.naughton@oireachtas.ie; Brendan.Griffin@oireachtas.ie; bernard.durkan@oireachtas.ie; Martin.Heydon@oireachtas.ie; charles.flanagan@oireachtas.ie; kieran.odonnell@oireachtas.ie; Patrick.O'Donovan@oireachtas.ie; peter.burke@oireachtas.ie; fergus.odowd@oireachtas.ie; alan.dillon@oireachtas.ie; michael.ring@oireachtas.ie; helen.mcentee@oireachtas.ie; damien.english@oireachtas.ie; frank.feighan@oireachtas.ie; paul.kehoe@oireachtas.ie; Simon.Harris@oireachtas.ie
Green Party TDs
Eamon.Ryan@greenparty.ie; catherine.martin@oireachtas.ie; patrick.costello@oireachtas.ie; francisnoel.duffy@oireachtas.ie; neasa.hourigan@oireachtas.ie; brian.leddin@oireachtas.ie; steven.matthews@oireachtas.ie; malcolm.noonan@oireachtas.ie; joe.obrien@oireachtas.ie; marc.ocathasaigh@oireachtas.ie; roderic.ogorman@oireachtas.ie
ossian.smyth@greenparty.ie
Sinn Fein TDs
john.brady@oireachtas.ie; pat.buckley@oireachtas.ie; Sean.Crowe@oireachtas.ie; david.cullinane@oireachtas.ie; Pearse.Doherty@oireachtas.ie; dessie.ellis@oir.ie; kathleen.funchion@oireachtas.ie; martinkennysf@gmail.com; MaryLou.McDonald@oireachtas.ie; denise.mitchell@oireachtas.ie; imelda.munster@oireachtas.ie; eoin.obroin@oireachtas.ie; donnchadh.olaoghaire@oireachtas.ie; aengus.osnodaigh@oireachtas.ie; louiseoreillysf@gmail.com; maurice.quinlivan@oireachtas.ie; Brian.Stanley@oireachtas.ie; mark.ward@oireachtas.ie; chris.andrews@oireachtas.ie; martin.browne@oireachtas.ie; matt.carthy@oireachtas.ie; sorca.clarke@oireachtas.ie; roseconwaywalsh@eircom.net; reada.cronin@oireachtas.ie; pa.daly@oireachtas.ie; paul.donnelly@oireachtas.ie; mairead.farrell@oireachtas.ie; thomas.gould@oireachtas.ie; johnny.guirke@oireachtas.ie; claire.kerrane@oireachtas.ie; padraig.maclochlainn@oir.ie; johnny.mythen@oireachtas.ie; ruairi.omurchu@oireachtas.ie; darren.orourke@oireachtas.ie; patriciaryan975@gmail.com; pauline.tully@oireachtas.ie; vwynne@gmail.com
Labour Party TDs
sean.sherlock@oireachtas.ie; aodhan.oriordain@oireachtas.ie; duncan.smith@oireachtas.ie; gerald.nash@oireachtas.ie; Alan.Kelly@oireachtas.ie; brendan.howlin@oireachtas.ie
Witness the cruelty of hare coursing in Ireland
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRkXOvbUPNNjMc6LShwiiXBfnDAPbykf