Time for the curtain to come down on coursing

IT was horrifying to see an actual veterinary surgeon defending cruel coursing (Letters, October 6). Tommy Kearney’s claim that coursers “hold the welfare of the Irish hare very close to their hearts” is just plain wrong.

Veterinary Ireland clearly defines welfare as “a state of well-being in which an animal ... is not subjected to unnecessary pain, fear or suffering”. In coursing, hares are subjected to all three.

Over the years, the Irish Council Against Blood Sports has uncovered just some of this suffering: hares squealing in distress after being caught by muzzled dogs, pregnant hares forced to run for their lives, a hare with a fractured femur and another in agony with its leg “almost completely broken off”.