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Hares are rising up against cruel coursing and will loom large outside the gates of Dail Eireann (Kildare Street, Dublin) from 12 noon on Tuesday, 11th July. Please come along to the protest and show your support for a ban on this barbaric bloodsport.
Very shortly, Heritage Minister Darragh O'Brien, who is on record as being opposed to hare coursing, will decide whether to grant or refuse the coursers another licence to snatch thousands of hares from the wild for use as live bait for greyhounds at coursing sessions around the country.
77% of Irish citizens want hare coursing banned (with just 9% disagreeing with a ban), yet our legislators run scared of the minority of hare coursers, with a small number of TDs in Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, who support bloodsports, vehemently opposing a ban, while the rest acquiesce to their demands.
Meanwhile we are facing a huge biodiversity crisis, with wildlife habitat loss due to modern farming methods and climate change. We have noted a continuing decline in the number of hares that the coursers have captured over the last ten years. In 2012/13, the coursers snatched 5,676 hares from the wild for coursing, while ten years later, 2022/23, the number caught was 3,342, a drop of 41%. This should set alarm bells ringing in the National Parks & Wildlife Service.
If the Minister and the NPWS are serious about tackling biodiversity loss, they must at the very least move to properly protect all wildlife, including our unique Irish Hare. The hare should be removed from the open season order to stop persecution by hunters, shooters and coursers. The Minister must face down the bullying hare coursers and refuse the hare capture licence.
Witness the cruelty of hare coursing in Ireland
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gkr014Y0KR0
ACTION ALERT
HELP THE HARES: Tell Heritage Ministers Darragh O’Brien and Malcolm Noonan to give full protection to the Irish Hare, refuse a 2023-24 coursing licence and stop all hunting and shooting of hares.
Minister Darragh O’Brien (Fianna Fail, Dublin Fingal)
Tel: (01) 618 3802 OR (086) 251 9893
Email: darragh.obrien@oireachtas.ie; minister@housing.gov.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; pippa.hackett@oireachtas.ie
(CC: Green Party Senator Pippa Hackett, Minister of State for Land Use and Biodiversity in the Department of Agriculture)