[Note: Any donations made through Change.org go directly to Change.org. If you wish to donate to the Irish Council Against Blood Sports to support our campaigns, you can do so at https://www.paypal.me/banbloodsports Thank you]

An Open Season amendment signed into law by Green Party Nature Minister Malcolm Noonan has allowed for the continuation of cruel hare coursing.

The Wildlife (Wild Mammals) (Open Seasons) (Amendment) Order 2024 was enacted by the Green politician earlier this year, with the primary aim of allowing shooters to blast fallow deer, sika deer and red deer to death for up to three additional months of the year. 

Statutory Instrument SI 66 of 2024 extended the hunting season to allow the killing of female deer and young antlerless male deer for an additional month (now 1 November to 31 March). The killing season for male deer has also been stretched by an extra three months – one extra month at the beginning and two more at the end (1 August to 30 April – total 9 months).

The fallow and sika deer may be gunned down anywhere in the state. Red deer can be killed anywhere in the state except County Kerry.

Muntjac deer may be shot all year round.

Reacting to the extension of the hunting season, the Irish Deer Commission (which does not oppose hunting) stated: “It is not clear what the rationale is for the changes to the open seasons, as there is no scientific evidence to support such a change or requirement for additional culling at a national level. While claims of expanding deer populations have been made, there is no data on deer densities in any county or area of Ireland. It is likely the changes to the seasons have come about because of sector lobbying and political pressure...A further indication of politics and deer management rather than science was a statement by An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar on October 23rd, 2023 when he said in response to a Dail question that 'the Government does not believe a national cull is needed'; by December 6th, 2023, a national deer cull was government policy without any scientific evidence.” See the video at https://x.com/banbloodsports/status/1839079538195660979/video/1

In relation to the hunting of female deer, its statement highlighted that “while female deer are pregnant from September/October and therefore always pregnant during the current open season for female deer starting on November 1st, many hunters dislike removing fully formed foetuses in January and February not to mention in March within two months of the birthing season.”

As reported by the Irish Council Against Blood Sports last year, among the victims of  hunting were five heavily pregnant deer mercilessly gunned down in a field in Meath in April 2023. Fully formed live fawn foetuses – believed to be days from birth – were cut from the bodies of the dead hinds and their throats were slit. Their remains were dumped in the field alongside those of their dead mothers. According to a subsequent statement from the office of Minister Malcolm Noonan, the brutal killing of the pregnant deer and their unborn fawns did not constitute a breach of a licence granted to the shooter by the National Parks and Wildlife Service. 

The amended open season order, signed by Malcolm Noonan on 27 February 2024, is available to view on the National Parks and Wildlife Service website
https://www.npws.ie/sites/default/files/files/SI%20No%2066%20of%202024%20(Mammals).pdf

It states: “I, MALCOLM NOONAN, Minister of State at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage...order...The Principal Order is amended by the substitution of the following Schedule for the Schedule to the Principal Order”

The updated schedule not only includes the new dates for the killing of deer but also the pre-exisiting dates for the persecution of the Irish Hare. It outlines that the Irish Hare may be shot with firearms, hunted by dogs at “regulated coursing matches” and hunted with packs of beagles and harrier dogs between 26 September and 28 February. They may be hunted “throughout the State exclusive of the townlands of North East Slob, North West Slob, Big Island, Beggerin Island and The Raven, in the county of Wexford”. 

Minister Noonan's decision to keep the Irish Hare on the schedule of species that may be killed is totally at odds with his party's animal welfare policy which states: “The Green Party is opposed to all blood sports, and will bring in legislation to end hare coursing, fox hunting, hare hunting and mink hunting.”

Here was a golden opportunity to remove the Hare from the Open Seasons Order and save this threatened and declining species from the most appalling persecution.

His failure to do this meant that later in the year, Heritage Minister Darragh O'Brien was free to issue yet another licence to coursers for a 2024-25 season. It also means that for 156 days of the year, hares may be shot to death as they sit inoffensively in fields and chased by packs of dogs and ripped to pieces when caught.

See the Green Party's Animal Welfare Policy document at
https://www.greenparty.ie/sites/default/files/2021-11/GP_ANIMAL_WELFARE_POLICY_JUNE2019.pdf

See Also
Open season for deer hunting extended
https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2024/0229/1435236-deer-hunting-season/

Ministers Noonan and McConalogue announce changes to Deer Open Season to manage Deer Populations
https://www.npws.ie/news/ministers-noonan-and-mcconalogue-announce-changes-deer-open-season-manage-deer-populations

No breach of shooter’s licence: Brutal killing of pregnant deer and unborn fawns
https://banbloodsports.wordpress.com/2023/05/30/no-breach-of-shooters-licence-brutal-killing-of-pregnant-deer-and-unborn-fawns/