Ireland’s Green Party has a  long-standing and widely-acclaimed policy of seeking a ban on live hare coursing, a cruel practice in which hares are hounded, mauled, and have their bones crushed for the amusement of gamblers and sight-seers.

The party is now in a coalition government, along with two other political parties.

Unfortunately, the party appears to be wavering in its opposition to hare coursing and may even vote AGAINST an upcoming Bill that proposes a ban on the blood sport.  Some Green TDs say they may have to back hare coursing in a parliamentary vote, though under protest and with heavy hearts.

Others remain steadfast in their concern for the welfare of animals and will, hopefully, defy the powerful hare coursing lobby.

The party’s coalition partners in government, the Fine Gael and Fianna Fail parties, are piling the pressure on the Greens to renounce their support for a hare coursing ban and vote to allow the horrific savagery to continue. The FF and FG parties, in response to heavy lobbying by coursing clubs, are committed to humiliating the Greens by compelling them to endorse animal cruelty posing as “sport.”

Apart from condemning the hares of Ireland to further seasons of coursing cruelty, this would spell the beginning of the end of the Green Party itself and lead to its inevitable estrangement from the international Green Movement.

Please ask Ireland’s Green Party government ministers to HOLD FIRM, stand up to the other parties, and SUPPORT the Bill to ban hare coursing.

You can use the following message or compose one of your own:

Dear Minister,

I understand that a Bill that aims to ban live hare coursing in Ireland is due to come before your country’s parliament in the coming weeks. I am also informed that your party is under intense pressure from your government coalition partners to oppose the Bill and to, instead, support the horrific cruelty of hare coursing.

Aside from perpetuating the sad plight of Ireland’s hares, such a move on your part would spell the end of the Green Party in Ireland and result in a split with the global Green Movement.

Please put the welfare of this gentle creature before the interests of the powerful pro-coursing lobby and its political backers.

Support the Bill to ban hare coursing.

Thanking you,

Email message to: catherine.martin@oireachtas.ie, eamon.ryan@oireachtas.ie, malcolm.noonan@oireachtas.ie, roderick.gorman@oireachtas.ie, pippa.hackett@oireachtas.ie, minister@dcya.gov.ie, minister@dttas.gov.ie, minister.ryan@dccae.gov.ie