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Just one of 20 hares subjected to cruel coursing was found alive in a study into the survival of hares used in the bloodsport.

The “Survival, movements, home ranges and dispersal of hares after coursing and/or translocation” study was commissioned by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (the body which shamefully issues licences for coursing) and involved snatching 40 hares from the wild in nets, attaching GPS radio collars around their necks and tracking their movements. 20 of the captured hares were forced to run for their lives at the national coursing crueltyfest in Clonmel in February 2022, while the other 20, for comparison purposes, were spared the ordeal.

The results of the study are alarming and strengthen the case for the Heritage Minister to apply the Precautionary Principle and refuse 2023-24 coursing licences.

Out of the 20 coursed hares used, just 1 was confirmed to be still alive at the end of the study.

This hare was relocated alive after 6.3 months or 191 days. Two other hares were found dead (road traffic collision and the other as a result of either fox predation or scavenging). It is unknown if the 17 other hares were alive or dead - three were never relocated after release and seven were relocated but subsequently disappeared. Seven other hares also went missing – their GPS collars were retrieved. 

The outcome for the 20 hares who were not used in coursing appeared to be significantly better. A total of eight were found alive (i.e. 5 relocated after six months + 3 recaptured by coursers for the following coursing season). One hare was confirmed dead in a road traffic collision. Four were never relocated after release, four others were relocated but subsequently disappeared and another 3 went missing (their collars were retrieved).

Most of the hares who went missing were hares who had been coursed - “coursed hares were significantly more likely to be lost from this study (17/20 = 85%) than uncoursed hares (11/20 = 55%) and thus significantly fewer were relocated alive at six months after release (5% compared to 40%)...and the rate of loss of coursed hares from the study was significantly faster than uncoursed hares.”

Searches were conducted for missing hares, both on the ground and from the air in a chartered helicopter, but to no avail.

Shame on the National Parks and Wildlife Service for commissioning a study which subjected Irish Hares to the cruelty of capture, confinement and coursing. The 40 hares suffered the stress of being netted from the wild, manhandled, transported to coursing compounds and held in captivity, all of which can negatively affect welfare and leave hares vulnerable to succumbing to capture myopathy in the months after release. 

Some of the hares had to endure releases into unfamiliar surroundings after being translocated to areas different to where they were originally captured. One of these hares “made a notably unusual and large exploratory movement over the course of the night during Day 2. During this excursion, it crossed a river twice (outbound and inbound journeys) in locations where there were no bridges and navigated throughout unfamiliar territory circumnavigating the entire study site before returning to near its release site.”

All the hares netted from the wild for the study were forced to wear GPS collars around their necks – which was clearly uncomfortable and unpleasant.

The study report conveys how desperate some of the hares were to free themselves from the unnatural encumbrances - “hares slashed through the strap with their hind nails with evidence of gnawing”. It reveals that half of the ten coursed hares who were translocated "removed their collars by fraying the straps until they failed (wore through) usually within a month of release”. 

Questioning why the damaged collars were associated with hares who had been coursed and translocated, the report states that "it could be speculated this behaviour may be the result of the combined effects of coursing and translocation (greater stress leading to lower tolerance for collar wearing)” but goes on to maintain that “there was no evidence whatsoever to support such a supposition and the role of random chance and statistical stochasticity cannot be ruled out."

According to the report, the supplier of the GPS collars (LOTEK Ltd) was informed and responded that no such problems had been reported by other researchers who had tagged similar hare species with comparable collar models. 

The report acknowledges that "the impacts of coursing on individual survival remains poorly quantified", noting that "the coursed translocated cohort was the only group with no hares remaining on site five and a half months after release."

It also states that "due to collar losses, notably among the coursed cohort, questions remain about dispersal and survival of coursed hares after their release."

Download a copy of the report from
http://edepositireland.ie/bitstream/handle/2262/102623/IWM145.pdf

Given the cruelty of hare coursing, from the capturing and confinement of hares to their use as live bait for dogs to terrorise, Heritage Minister Darragh O'Brien and his Green Party colleague Malcolm Noonan must not hesitate to refuse 2023-24 coursing licences. This would be in line with public opinion - a RED C poll found that 77% of people in both rural and urban areas want coursing banned, with just 9% disagreeing with a ban.

Please join us in our renewed appeal for coursing to be permanently ended.

URGENT ACTION ALERT

HELP THE HARES: Urgently contact Heritage Minister Darragh O’Brien and Minister of State Malcolm Noonan. Email "Please refuse a 2023-24 licence for cruel hare coursing" to:
minister@housing.gov.ie; mos@housing.gov.ie

Minister Darragh O’Brien (Fianna Fail, Dublin Fingal)
Tel: (01) 618 3802 OR (086) 251 9893
Email: minister@housing.gov.ie; darragh.obrien@oireachtas.ie

Malcolm Noonan TD (Green Party, Carlow Kilkenny)
Minister of State for Heritage
Tel: (01) 618 3148 OR (01) 618 3156
Email: mos@housing.gov.ie; malcolm.noonan@oireachtas.ie

With a RED C opinion poll confirming that a 77 per cent majority of citizens want hare coursing banned (with just 9% disagreeing with a ban), it is now time for politicians to consign this nasty bloodsport to history. Join us in contacting all TDs and urging them to act to ensure that a ban is urgently introduced. Visit the Oireachtas website for contact details for TDs https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/members/tds/?term=/ie/oireachtas/house/dail/33

Urge Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Tanaiste Micheál Martin to respect the wishes of the majority and ban hare coursing and all bloodsports.

Taoiseach 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

Tanaiste 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

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Sinn Fein: Support a ban on cruel hare coursing
https://www.change.org/p/sinn-fein-support-a-ban-on-cruel-hare-coursing

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Witness the cruelty of hare coursing in Ireland
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gkr014Y0KR0