South Dublin councillors are calling for a nationwide ban on hare coursing.
The chamber voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to write to Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue asking him to make the move. It follows a similar, but failed vote in Cork County, where 36 councillors opposed a hare coursing ban.
Hare coursing is when greyhounds are set off after live hares captured from the wild, leaving some maimed or dead despite their ‘protected’ status. The capture of wild hares for the 'sport' is licensed by the Department for Housing, while the Department for Agriculture, Farming and Marine have overall responsibility for the live events.
A 2019 RED C poll found 77% respondents throughout Ireland thought the government should ban the practice which has already been outlawed in Northern Ireland and Great Britain. But it continues despite NPWS’s 2017-2019 National Hare Survey saying there is evidence our hare population “declined substantially” in the 20th century and we have had around three hares per square km since 2000.
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South Dublin councillors from the Green Party, People Before Profit, Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, The Social Democrats, Sinn Fein, Labour, An Rabharta Glas and some Independents all support a ban. Green councillor Lyn Hagin Meade, who proposed the motion, said: “During coursing, the fragile, solitary creatures are herded and netted, they’re kept in cramped conditions and then they are put in the coursing field where the muzzled dogs chase them.
“The hares don’t know that the dogs are muzzled. The hares can be trampled, their bones can be broken, the dogs have claws and they are large and heavy in comparison to those hares.
“Why should any wild animal have to repeatedly run for their life in an enclosed space from dogs trained to catch them for entertainment value?
The five freedoms of animal welfare which apply in Ireland since 2016 include the freedoms from fear and distress by ensuring conditions and treatment that avoid mental suffering. So why is coursing still legal here? In our 21st Century society, there is no place for animal cruelty, instilling fear into creatures that would otherwise live a peaceful life.”
Hare Coursing is already banned in Northern Ireland, Great Britain, most EU countries and Australia.
“Ireland is really the outlier,” added Cllr Meade.
She said the council will contact the Department of Agriculture “to encourage the legality of the practice to be reconsidered”. The Irish Council Against Blood Sports has been campaigning for a hare coursing ban for some time.
Aideen Yourell said: “Hare coursing is now outlawed in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, leaving our republic as the last outpost of this backwoods barbarism. 77% of Irish citizens agree that hare coursing and fox hunting should be banned, according to a RED C poll carried out in 2019.”
Irish Coursing Club chair, DJ Histon, told us: “The call for a ban is short-sighted and ignores the conservation effort conducted by coursing clubs on a 12-month basis.” The Department for Agriculture, which oversees the veterinary side of hare coursing, has been contacted for comment.
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