Letter in Irish Examiner (Sept.26th 2018)

It’s bad enough that coursing clubs are out snatching hares from fields, hills and mountainsides for the upcoming season, but can they not leave these persecuted animals in peace on our inland and off-shore islands?

In recent years the coursers have targeted Hog Island, off the County Clare coast, Whiddy Island, in Bantry Bay, Island Eddy in Galway Bay, and Oyster Island, off the Sligo coast. The main reason for these incursions being that hares have become so scarce in many parts of Ireland, with some coursing clubs finding it difficult to capture enough bait for their fixtures.

Bull Island in Dublin Bay has not been visited by coursing clubs for the past three years. That’s the good news. The bad news is that there are no hares left on Bull Island. There were just two remaining in 2016, as confirmed by a visiting conservationist. A combination of netting for coursing and illegal poaching decimated the island’s hare population.

The Minister for Arts and Heritage, Joseph Madigan, has repeatedly stated in response to Dail questions that she cares deeply about the welfare and conservation status of the Irish Hare. How then can she allow this iconic creature, supposedly a protected species under the Wildlife Act, to be taken from the few locations where it can run free, untroubled by predators?

For the sad reality is that the Irish Hare is not safe in ANY part of the national territory. Having survived the last Ice Age of 10,000 years ago, it must now contend with recreational human cruelty and the craven political cowardice that allows coursing to continue.

I suspect we’ll only appreciate the value of this animal when it has disappeared from our countryside, or is pushed to the brink of extinction like the curlew.

John Fitzgerald

(Campaign for the Abolition of Cruel Sports),

Callan,

Co Kilkenny