Letters to the Editor: Permits for hare-coursing should be refused
It's long past time to ban hare coursing. The Irish government can take a first step by refusing to grant permits this year for hares to be torn from their homes in the countryside, tormented, and forced to run for their lives for this "sport".
It's hard to imagine anything more barbaric: from the terrifying chase – during which sensitive hares, a protected species in Ireland, have been known to rupture internal organs as they flee the dogs – to the moment they find themselves surrounded, petrified and exhausted. The dogs are muzzled, but this does little to reduce injuries and fatalities, as they can still forcibly strike the hares, pin them to the ground, and toss them in the air – breaking their fragile bones, dislocating hips, fracturing spines, and causing internal bleeding.
Hare coursing is an archaic blood sport that has no place in modern society – it was rightfully made illegal in Northern Ireland and most other European countries aeons ago. It's high time we followed suit and let gentle hares live in peace.
John Carmody
Limerick
