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End scandal of legal hare coursing in Ireland

Abolish hare coursing in Ireland | 10.01.2014 23:20 | Animal Liberation | Ecology | Other Press | Liverpool | World

Hare coursing cruelty continues…

The Republic of Ireland has become one of the last remaining countries in the world to allow hare coursing. The cruel blood sport has already been banned in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and remains illegal in most civilised nations.






protest against hare coursing at Irish parliament
protest against hare coursing at Irish parliament

Baby hares...
Baby hares...


Coursing continues despite the fact that successive opinion polls since the 1960s have confirmed that a majority of Irish people want it made illegal. A Sunday Independent poll, for example, showed that eight in ten want this blood sport banned.

In 1993, the muzzling of greyhounds in enclosed coursing was introduced. As predicted by the Irish Council Against Blood Sports at the time, muzzling has failed to eliminate the cruelty from coursing.

Thousands of hares are snatched from the wild and chased by greyhounds. Some of the hares will be battered and mauled into the ground by the dogs. Some will sustain injuries so severe that they will die on the coursing fields. All will suffer the fear and stress of running for their lives.

Please join us in telling the Irish Government that it is now time to replace live hare coursing with drag coursing.

This would involve a simple transition from the use of live hares to the use of a mechanical lure. This lure is rapidly pulled along the ground and, through a system of pulleys, is made to emulate the sudden changes in direction made by hares. Drag coursing is practised successfully in several countries around the world, including the USA, Canada and Australia where live hare coursing is illegal.

All hares used in coursing are victims and they all suffer the fear and stress of being violently snatched from their habitats, thrown into crates, transported to coursing compounds and kept in captivity for months. Among the hare injuries and deaths recorded are:
• A hare "squealing in distress" after being caught by a muzzled dog
• A hare suffering with "a badly broken hind leg"
• A hare "carrying a hind leg"
• A hare with "a damaged hind toe"
• A coursed hare with a "badly broken hind leg [which] seemed to be in great distress"
• A hare in agony in a coursing enclosure with its leg "almost completely broken off".
• A hare destroyed by a vet after it was found suffering with a dislocated hip
• A hare that died "from knocks sustained during coursing"
• A hare released back into the wild with a "damaged leg" that "could be broken"
• A hare found dead in a coursing compound after succumbing to pneumonia.
• A vet treated three hares for "minor abrasions" and "witnessed three other hares that appeared to die after coursing without any outward signs of injury. One of these was sent to the local regional veterinary laboratory. Post-mortem findings included internal adhesions, suggestive of an old condition."
• Seven hares badly hit by greyhounds, with three dying as a result of the injuries.
• An injured hare with "marks on its back and bare areas".
• Two hares found dead in a coursing club paddock. An autopsy showed that one died from well established pneumonia while the other died from so-called "natural causes". Another died "during transportation from Loughrea to Westport."
• 13 hares hit by dogs and 1 put down because of injuries and 3 died from injuries. Veterinary opinion was that they died "from knocks sustained during coursing the previous day."
The pictures show how is struck forcibly and tossed into the air by the greyhounds at the “Crohane” coursing event held in County Tipperary in October 2013.

Film footage of hare coursing in Ireland:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOP5-sMRElM&list=PLRkXOvbUPNNjMc6LShwiiXBfnDAPbykf-

Abolish hare coursing in Ireland

Comments

Hide the following 4 comments

Not actually ture

11.01.2014 16:17

"The Republic of Ireland has become one of the last remaining countries in the world to allow hare coursing"

Actually most countries of the world have no laws disallowing hare coursing. It is uncommon for places to bother enacting laws forbidding activities nobody in that place has any interest in doing.

For example, I am rather sure that you (also) oppose bull fighting but also rather sure that Ireland doesn't have any specific law forbidding bull fighting. No need for such a law if nobody in Ireland has any interest in organizing a bull fight nor people in Ireland from attending one.

Well for most of us "hare coursing" falls into the same category. Some of us who live with "sight hounds" might enjoy watching them take off after prey while walking with our dogs but releasing a captive prey animal for that purpose, yuck.

MDN


Alll too true...

11.01.2014 18:51


This is most certainly true...hare coursing can't stand the truth!! Hence the warning at all hare coursing events in Ireland: "Unauthorised photography strictly forbidden". Cameras have been seized and smashed at these "sporting" events.

Friend of the Hare


NOT what I was referring to

12.01.2014 14:21

I was NOT commenting on whether "hare coursing" should or should not be made illegal in Ireland. I thought I made it clear enough that I did not approve of the activity.

I was commenting ion the lamentable tendency of AR folks to include patently untrue statements in their arguments. Apparently they don't understand the effect of doing that to undermine a statement. When those who disapprove of a statement can point to something in it that is untrue it allows them to call into question the veracity of those making the statement. Much as when in a court a witness can be shown to have lied about something (even not anything directly related to the main question) their testimony is worth less.

I also included WHY most countries do NOT have laws forbidding "hare coursing". They don't NEED such laws. And campaigns to put such laws on the books in advance of anybody in the jurisdiction wanting to engage in "hare coursing" not a great idea (know the song about telling children not to put beans in their ears?).

MDN


Clarification

13.01.2014 22:31

The article addresses the legality of hare coursing in Ireland...and the fact that it has been banned in many countries that once permitted it by law. No distortion of fact there. There is no attempt to suggest campaigns against hare coursing in countries where it is not practised anyway.

Clarification


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