"Setting up hares as live bait for greyhounds is far from good for them. They get mauled by the dogs, struck at high speed, tossed into the air, and even hares that escape physically unscathed may die afterwards in the wild from stress-related ailments." - Read John Fitzgerald's Letter to the Editor in today's Irish Times...
‘Can coursing be good for hares?’
Irish Times, 15 January 2019
Sir, – I normally enjoy reading Michael Viney’s articles about our wonderful flora and fauna, but not his one on hare coursing (“Can coursing be good for hares? The strange answer is yes”, Another Life, Weekend Review, January 12th). He concedes that there are animal welfare issues with the “sport” but believes it may not be detrimental to hares as a species, from a conservationist point of view.
The supposed logic behind the often-repeated claim that coursing is good for hares stems from the idea that there are bound to be more hares in the vicinity of where coursing takes place. With coursing clubs ensuring a plentiful supply of the animals for their fixtures, the apologists argue, the hare populations can only benefit and thrive.
In former times, advocates for cock-fighting and badger-baiting could equally have argued that roosters and badgers were always more plentiful around the locations where these “sports” were organised.
But setting up hares as live bait for greyhounds is far from good for them. They get mauled by the dogs, struck at high speed, tossed into the air, and even hares that escape physically unscathed may die afterwards in the wild from stress-related ailments.
With hares under threat from urbanisation, modern farming methods that deprive them of habitat, and widespread poaching, the last thing they need is the kind of disruption caused by the netting gangs that snatch them for coursing – and the trauma induced by bouts of unnatural captivity and the high levels of stress that result from contrived chases in man-made wired enclosures.
Hare coursing is not about conservation. It is about humans watching these animals running for their lives from pairs of hyped-up dogs. All in all, the life of a coursing hare is far from being a happy one! – Yours, etc,
JOHN FITZGERALD,
Callan, Co Kilkenny
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/can-coursing-be-good-for-hares-1.3757769
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ICABS ACTION ALERT
With warnings from wildlife experts that the Irish Hare is in trouble, it is now more clear than ever that the species must be given FULL PROTECTION - no hare coursing, no hare hunting, no hare shooting. Urgently contact Minister Josepha Madigan and the National Parks and Wildlife Service and demand that they revoke the 2018-19 hare coursing licence and end all forms of hare persecution.
Minister Josepha Madigan
Minister for Culture, Heritage & the Gaeltacht
Phone: +353 (0)1 631 3800
Email: josepha.madigan@oireachtas.ie, ministers.office@ahg.gov.ie, wildlifelicence@ahg.gov.ie, john.fitzgerald@ahg.gov.ie, Gerry.Leckey@ahg.gov.ie, nature.conservation@ahg.gov.ie
Leave a comment on Facebook: https://facebook.com/JosephaMadiganFG
Tweet to: @josephamadigan
John Fitzgerald
Director, National Parks and Wildlife Service
Phone: +353 (0)1 888 3242
Email: john.fitzgerald@ahg.gov.ie
SAMPLE LETTER
(If you have time, please compose your own personal letter. Otherwise, feel free to send the short sample letter below)
Dear Minister Madigan,
I am one of the majority who want hare coursing outlawed. I am writing to demand that you revoke the 2018-19 hare netting licence that has shamefully been issued.
In coursing, hares suffer and die at all stages - during the capture, during the time they are kept in captivity and during the coursing meetings where they run for their lives in front of greyhounds. Among the injuries recorded are broken legs, damaged toes and dislocated hips.
I ask you to please act on the wishes of the majority, show compassion and end this cruelty.
Thank you.
Yours sincerely,
[Name/Location]
The Irish Hare is a protected species but an exemption for coursing in the Animal Health and Welfare Act means coursers are not liable for prosecution for their cruelty. Join us in our call to the government to remove the exemption and provide full and permanent protection to this cherished species.
Contact An Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar and ask him to ban hare coursing and give permanent protection to hares.
An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar
Department of the Taoiseach,
Government Buildings,
Upper Merrion St, Dublin 2
Telephone: +353 (0)1-6194020
Email: taoiseach@taoiseach.gov.ie, leo.varadkar@oireachtas.ie
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Leave a comment on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/campaignforleo/
Please contact all your local politicians and ask them to push for a ban on this blood sport. Encourage your friends, family and workmates to contact them too. 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 Write to your TDs at: Dail Eireann, Leinster House, Kildare Street, Dublin 2. Tel: 01-618 3000 or 1890 337 889. Please also arrange a meeting with your TDs at their local clinics.