More shocking video footage captured by the Irish Council Against Bloodsports confirms that the suffering is continuing for hares. Our footage from a coursing meeting in Ardpatrick and Kilfinane in County Limerick shows a hare hit by greyhounds and desperately trying to escape before being caught and severely mauled. After a prolonged battering, the hare is pulled from the grip of the dogs and dumped in a wooden box. Arts & Heritage Minister Heather Humphreys, who has responsibility for the licensing of this barbarity, declared during the debate on Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan's Bill to ban hare coursing last June that the hare netting licence conditions and the muzzling of greyhounds have demonstrated "positive outcomes for hares" during coursing, but this and other video evidence gathered in the last couple of weeks at just three of the several coursing meetings that have taken place, utterly belie this silly assertion. In fact, her claims are entirely farcical, as no amount of conditions, rules and regulations, monitoring by wildlife rangers or vets in attendance at coursing meetings will prevent hares from being mauled by greyhounds. Hare coursing is inherently and intrinsically cruel, and every single hare snatched from the wild to be used as live bait for greyhounds will suffer fear, terror and stress. This barbarism should have long since been consigned to the dustbin of history, but our legislators turned a blind eye and despicably decided to keep this heinous cruelty going when 114 TDs voted down Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan's Bill last June. SHAME ON THE LOT OF THEM!!! We lag far behind other countries when it comes to our treatment of animals. England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have long since banned hare coursing, leaving the Republic of Ireland as the last bastion of this backwoods barbarism. This latest highlighted mauling follows similar incidents filmed at coursing meetings in Loughrea and Ballingar in recent weeks https://youtu.be/WNZUkbhXLSI?list=PLRkXOvbUPNNg1KdCXIhJwE_YQELz8SOX0 ICABS is renewing our appeal to the government to show compassion for the Irish Hare and do the right thing by banning coursing. We are again contacting the 114 TDs who shamefully lined up in Dail Eireann in June to vote AGAINST a ban on hare coursing and asking them to watch the videos and pledge to support a ban at the next voting opportunity. Hare coursing must be ended in Ireland. Please join us as we redouble our efforts to push for a long overdue ban. Send the email below, sign and share the petitions, call the Ministers and contact your local TDs. Thank you. ACTION ALERT Email "BAN HARE COURSING NOW" TO Heather.Humphreys@oireachtas.ie, ministers.office@ahg.gov.ie, taoiseach@taoiseach.gov.ie, wildlifelicence@ahg.gov.ie, Gerry.Leckey@ahg.gov.ie, michael.creed@oir.ie Leave a comment on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/heather.humphreysfg https://www.facebook.com/endakennyofficial/ https://www.facebook.com/michaelcreedtd/ Tel: +353 (0)1-631 3802 or (01) 631 3800 (Heather Humphreys) Tel: +353 (0)1-6194020 (Enda Kenny) Tel: +353 (0)1-607 2000 (Michael Creed) Contact all your local TDs now. Demand that they urgently push for a ban on hare coursing and all bloodsports. Visit the Oireachtas website for names of TDs and their email addresses http://www.oireachtas.ie/members-hist/default.asp?housetype=0&HouseNum=32&disp=mem