Zero Hour is approaching for the hundreds of hares held captive on a racecourse in the Republic of Ireland. The animals were snatched weeks ago from their natural habitats all over Ireland for use in Ireland's 3 Day "festival" of live hare coursing. This event will be the culmination of the Irish coursing season that commenced in late September 2018.
 
Though banned in Northern Ireland, this medieval blood sport is permitted in the Republic of Ireland where a powerful pro-hare coursing lobby holds our politicians in a vice-like grip. The Irish government refuses to outlaw it despite overwhelming evidence of the cruelty involved. Video footage shows hares being mauled or otherwise injured by the dogs at coursing venues all over Ireland. Though muzzled, the greyhounds can and do inflict injury on the hares, by mauling them, pinning them to the ground, striking them forcibly at high speed, or tossing the animals about like broken toys.
 
Here is footage showing what the "sport" entails: https://www.facebook.com/banbloodsports/videos/1471144763016444/
 
At the 3 Day live coursing "festival" on Clonmel racecourse, the hares will run their lives to entertain a cheering mob; twisting, turning and dodging for human amusement. The fans will be all decked out in winter gear, marking their betting cards or swigging from whiskey flasks.  Fans claim not to enjoy seeing a hare injured or killed, that it's the "risk" to the animal and the uncertainty of the outcome, that they savour...the excitement this generates. But the animals have to suffer for this silly whim.
 
When a hare is severely injured in coursing, a man known as the "dispatcher" is assigned to put the animal "out of its misery." He breaks the hare's neck, always standing with his back to the fans, who pretend not to see this, or to hear the death screeches of the hare.
 
Prior to a coursing fixture, away from public view; rabbits, birds, and even cats are fed live to greyhounds to whet their appetite for blood and supposedly enhance their performance on coursing day. The greyhounds suffer too. Apart from injuries sustained in coursing, dogs whose running days have ended are routinely disposed of by a bullet to the brain or the whack of a shovel across the head. Only a tiny percentage of them are re-homed.
 
The campaign to ban this abhorrent "sport" continues. If you live in Ireland you might like join the peaceful protest this Sunday (Feb.3rd) on the opening day of the national hare coursing "festival." Thank you.
 
Protest details:
 
Location: Outside Powerstown Park racecourse, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary, Ireland.
 
Date: Sunday, February 3rd.
 
Time: 12 noon to 2 pm.