Letter in Irish Mail on Sunday: April 9th.
 
Wildlife on the brink as politicians bless coursing
 
After all the fanfare about the launch of the Citizens’ Assembly report on biodiversity loss have died down we’ll see exactly how the government responds to it.

I know if I were an animal or bird teetering on the brink of extinction, or depending on action to save my habitat, I wouldn’t like to be waiting on politicians to come to my rescue. They haven’t exactly distinguished themselves in tackling the abuse of our wonderful wildlife heritage.

A few weeks from now a government department will again be approached by coursing clubs for a hare-netting license. This will permit the capture of thousands of hares nationwide for use as live bait.

With the Government’s blessing and State approval the hares will be rounded up later in the year and forced to run from pairs of frenzied dogs. Some will be mauled or otherwise physically injured in the “sport”, others will succumb to stress myopathy and die afterwards in the wild...but all will experience the terror and trauma of unnatural capture and confinement, followed by a contrived chase in a manmade wired enclosure.

A sixth of all the submissions received by the Citizens Assembly on Biodiversity Loss called for a ban on hare coursing, and these can be read on its website. Opinion polls consistently show that a big majority supports a ban.

The Irish Hare is a gentle creature that poses no pest control problem and, far from requiring a cull due to numbers, has been in decline for the past half century owing to habitat loss and excessive poaching.

It also happens to be one of our few truly native mammals, having been on this island since at least the last Ice Age.

But the supposed protection conferred on it under wildlife legislation is blithely cast aside when the politically well-connected coursers snap their fingers and demand another netting license.

John Fitzgerald, Callan, Co. Kilkenny