Not sport for those on the receiving end
Reading reports in the sporting pages of certain newspapers about the so-called ‘National Coursing Festival’, It seems to me that coursing fans are in denial about the ordeal to which they subject the hare. They say they worry when a hare appears to be in danger, urging the animal to safety. But why place the unfortunate hare in that position in the first instance? Imagine a gang targeting some poor victim and then saying ‘I hope he doesn’t suffer too much, sure isn’t he great?’
It is the ever-present risk of death or injury to a defenceless animal that makes the ‘sport’ compelling. The risk is to the hare, an unwilling participant in the game - not ever to the fans wrapped up in their snug winter gear and having a laugh or flutter at its expense. The hare is at the butt end of all the craic, camaraderie, and carnival atmosphere that colour writers rhapsodise about every year in the wake of the threeday hare-baiting extravaganza..
And I see that problood sport lobby are again citing, in defence of coursing, a 2007 Queens University survey, which they claim found hare population density to be 18 times greater in areas administered by coursing clubs than elsewhere. That assertion is misleading in that the project to which they refer involved only one coursing club, in County Donegal, and that club was informed by the researchers in advance that the study was to take place, and of its purpose.
In fact coursing clubs are not engaged in any conservationist project or undertaking. They capture hares for one reason only: to set dogs on them.
Animal welfare issues aside, another pressing conservationist reason to extend complete protection to the Irish Hare is the arrival of the deadly RHD2 virus in the Irish countryside. This disease is fatal to hares and rabbits and is highly contagious. It decimated hare populations in Spain and killed millions of rabbits in China.
It can be spread by the coursing-related practises of using nets to capture hares and their lengthy confinement in compounds or small paddocks where the disease could easily spread.
Aside from the impact that coursing has on hares, whether individually in an animal welfare context or on the species, I would argue that the legality of the practice, which is a criminal offence elsewhere in Europe including Northern Ireland since 2011, sends a very unhelpful signal from government to the general public:
Conservationists have dubbed the Irish Hare, one of our few truly native mammals, a ‘flagship of the island’s eco-system.’ And look at how we treat this iconic creature.
Hare coursing should be banned completely as part of any serious attempt to safeguard our biodiversity.
Thanking you,
John Fitzgerald, Lower Coyne Street,
Callan, Co. Kilkenny.