(Letter in "Education Matters" -May 18th)

Extending kindness to animals

—By John Fitzgerald

It’s said that when one door closes, another opens. 

A door may well have squeaked open for the tormented bulls of Spain, where the national sport that consists of a man teasing and slowly killing a mighty animal has been shut down due to Coronavirus.

The Fascist dictator Franco boasted that no power on earth would ever halt the bullfighting industry. He was wrong – unless one ascribes otherworldly attributes to the deadly Covid-19.

Spanish animal welfare campaigners naturally hope that this vile practice never emerges from lockdown.

Here in Ireland, we have our own national blood sport-hare coursing, permitted by successive governments despite compelling evidence of animal cruelty.

It differs from bullfighting though. There’s no contest between a swashbuckling man and a mighty animal charging him. Coursing fans face no danger as the hare is the gentlest creature in our countryside. It runs away from humans, not towards us.

The Matador can be gored or even killed. Coursers, on the other hand, stand behind wire mesh as the innocent hares are chased. The only “hurt” endured by human participants is the feeling of unease generated among the more sensitive onlookers when a hare is mauled, has its bones crushed, or is tossed skyward by the dogs.

The Matador, despite his cruel act, is revered for his supposed heroism. Coursing is cowardly from beginning to end, with not even the pretense of bravery on the part of those who make our iconic Irish Hare suffer for their amusement.

Hare Coursers are already preparing for what they hope will be their next season in late September. I presume they plan to wear masks and/or socially distance as they mark their cards or shout encouragement to the dogs.

The incoming government should tell them it’s all over, that the hares of Ireland will no longer have to perform for them.

A ban on this obscenity is long overdue. I don’t know what the “new normal” will be when the Covid-19 emergency passes, but I am certain that the world would be a far better place without the blood-spattered bull rings of Spain and the coursing fields of Ireland.