The annual license that permits the capture of hares for coursing is usually granted by the Irish government in early August.

This year, due to an outbreak of the deadly RHD2 disease that is fatal to both hares and rabbits and is highly contagious, the license has not yet been issued to the coursing clubs.

A ferocious behind the scenes battle is raging, with politicians who are pro-hare coursing pushing to have the license granted, despite overwhelming evidence that hare coursing can SPREAD the disease (apart altogether from the animal cruelty involved), and political opponents of the blood sport pressing for the license application to be refused.

Though Green Party ministers this year are the ones who in theory can decide on whether the license is issued, the reality is that powerful hardcore backers of hare coursing in the two political parties that are in government with the Greens may gain the upper hand and force a resumption of the cruel “sport” in which dogs are set on hares in wired enclosures.

In official coursing events the dogs are muzzled. In training sessions anything can happen, including blooding of dogs with live animals or birds.

Despite being muzzled, greyhounds inflict fatal injuries on the hares, mauling or forcibly striking them or tossing them into the air. Coursing fans claim hares "enjoy" being coursed. Have a look at this picture, taken at the so-called “Irish Cup” coursing extravaganza in 2013. Is this hare enjoying the "sport?"

But the big issue focusing the minds of politicians right now is whether it is acceptable to risk the complete wipe-out of the Irish Hare, a sub-species of the Mountain Hare unique to Ireland, by allowing a “sport” that is known to constitute a huge disease contamination risk.

The use of nets by coursing clubs to catch the hares, and their confinement for weeks in unnatural captivity, could easily result in RHD2 becoming rampant in the hare population.

Anyone who wishes the hare capture license to be refused can appeal to the Green Minister in the Irish government to STOP LICENSING this deliberate animal cruelty dressed up as recreation.

Email your message to Ireland's Arts and & Heritage Minister, Catherine Martin.

Address: catherine.martin@oireachtas.ie

Sample message:

To Ms. Catherine Martin TD,

Minister for arts and Heritage,

Government of Ireland.

Dear Ms. Martin,

I understand you will shortly be deciding on whether to grant a license permitting the capture of hares for another season of live hare coursing.

With the deadl;y RHD2 virus, which is fatal to hares and rabits,  rampant in the Irish countryside, and given the well-documented cruelty of hare coursing, I appeal to you REFUSE the license application from the coursing clubs this year.

Aside from the horrific injuries and trauma inflicted on hares that are used as live bait in coursing, RHD2 could wipe out the entire native hare species in Ireland, which would amount to an ecological catestrophe.

Please stand up to the powerful pro-blood sports lobby and take the side of Ireland's gentle hares. They have suffered for far too long at the hands of heartless human beings whose idea of "sport" is watching animals running for their lives.

No license for coursing please!

Thanking you.