Campaigners in plea for end to hare coursing

Animal welfare campaigners today called for the hare coursing finals at Powerstown Park, Clonmel, to be the country’s last live coursing event.

The Irish Council against Blood Sports (ICABS) has appealed to the Minister for Arts, Sports and Tourism, John O’Donoghue, to put pressure on coursing clubs to replace live competitions with mechanical lure coursing.

ICABS has sent videos explaining how lure or drag coursing works to the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste, the Minister for the Environment, Dick Roche, and to party leaders who have stated their opposition to hare coursing in the past.

According to the ICABS, mechanical lure coursing would not only be less cruel, but would also be more popular with the general public and remove the costs of regulating the sport.

The organisation said that an IMB poll had found that 80% of the Irish public was opposed to live hare coursing.

Lure coursing is practised successfully in Australia, America and in Britain, the ICABS said.

Aideen Yourell, a spokeswoman for the ICABS, said that the muzzling of greyhounds, which has been occurring for the last decade, did not take the cruelty out of the sport.

“In coursing there is gross interference with timid little creatures,” she said.

“The hare is terrorised from the time it is caught from the wild, put into boxes, fed an unnatural diet and then taken to a coursing competition.”

The organisation said that muzzling did not prevent the hares from being injured during coursing.

“They are being battered and mauled into the ground,” Ms Yourell said.

“Any hare who gets a battering is done-for and it’s likely they will die of their injuries.”

According to the ICABS, around 10,000 hares are coursed in Ireland each year.