Greens can do their bit for abused wildlife

AMID all the weighty wheeling and dealing in the corridors of power aimed at producing a new government, politicians may overlook the plight of a brutally oppressed and voiceless minority.

I refer to the victims of coursing clubs, foxhunts and the country’s only stag hunt. The Green Party included in its election manifesto a clear commitment to seeking a ban on such cruel sports should it find itself in government. Animal welfare campaigners hope this manifesto pledge can be honoured.

I am not suggesting that the hare snatched from its home in the countryside, and then forced to run for its life from hyped up greyhounds, should take precedence over the need to maintain our Celtic tiger economy.

Nor would I dare suggest that concern about the pain and suffering inflicted by the rich and famous on our majestic stags ought to divert precious government time and resources from the urgent business of running the country.

Hare coursing, fox hunting and stag hunting can be swiftly obliterated by an aptly worded wildlife protection bill. No adverse economic consequences would ensue from such a move.

A ban on hare coursing only means replacing the live hare with a mechanical lure, a viable and humane innovation already undertaken by Australia’s greyhound industry. The advent of drag coursing could then open up the sport to people in Ireland who at present abhor the cruelty that inevitably accompanies the use of live hares in the sport.

Action to protect the Irish hare is doubly urgent as the State-run Parks and Wildlife Service now classifies the animal as an endangered species, as does the Red Data Book on Irish flora and fauna.

Likewise, drag hunting could replace the “pursuit of the uneatable by the unspeakable”, as it has in Britain since the baiting ban.

John Fitzgerald

Campaign for the Abolition of Cruel Sports

Lower Coyne St

Callan

Co Kilkenny