Healy Rae slammed for equating death of hares in coursing to 'roadkill'
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Anti-coursing campaigners have slammed comments made by a TD that killing hares in coursing is the equivalent to accidental 'roadkill'.
Siobhán Bourke, who has been campaigning against the use of the Town Park in Millstreet, Co Cork, for annual coursing meets said Independent Kerry TD Micheal Healy-Rae’s comments are nauseating and not reflective of those held by most in Irish society.
Mr Healy-Rae said hare numbers would decrease if coursing was stopped because of the great care they receive at coursing meetings before they are returned to the wild.
It is the exception when hares are mauled during coursing, akin to an accident like when a motorist knocks down a deer on the road, he told Newstalk radio.
The Irish hare is protected under the Irish Wildlife Acts and can only be captured, tagged or killed under licence.
“I cannot understand how hares are a protected species, yet Government grants a licence for them to be terrorised like this,” Ms Bourke said. “We’ve evolved so much as a society, I can’t understand how this cruelty is still allowed.
“If you replaced the hare with a cute little Bichon Frise or designer dog people would not allow it. So why is it allowed for hares?
“I don’t know how Mr Healy-Rae thinks it’s socially acceptable to chase hares with these dogs. It’s not.
She called for a "vote of conscience" so that TDs are not compelled to vote with the party whip when the Animal Health and Welfare (Ban on Hare Coursing) Bill 2020 which would ban coursing, is next before the Oireachtas.
People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy who sponsored the bill previously described coursing as “cruel and barbaric”, an “outdated practice” that terrorised hares.
Hare coursing is illegal in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
Some 78% of people living rurally want a ban on the sport along with 76% of those in urban areas, according to a Red C poll take in September 2019 while 76% of urban people surveyed did. Overall, the poll found that 77% of Irish citizens want to see an end to live hare coursing.
Attempts were made to contact Millstreet Coursing Club for comment.
Ms Bourke said that although hundreds of people in Millstreet protested the use of the community’s Town Park for coursing last December and early January, which largely closed the park to locals, only a “handful” of people were involved in coursing there.
“I know a lot of people in Millstreet who are very upset about licences being granted again this year. It’s 2022 and this practice is barbaric.”
The Irish Council Against Blood Sports said it is “shameful” that Government recently granted licences allowing coursing clubs to capture live hares for the winter season.
Some 3,690 hares were captured for coursing in 2021 and 2022, a 36% drop from the 5,820 captured in 2011/2012 according to National Parks & Wildlife Service figures.
This, Aideen Yourell, campaign director with the Irish Council Against Blood Sports, said may indicate that hare numbers are already dwindling in the wild.
“It is an absolute disgrace and totally reckless for the Minister for Housing and Heritage Darragh O'Brien to licence the snatching of Irish hares (a unique species of hare) from the wild when there are red flags indicating a shortage of hares in the wild, and particularly as there is huge focus now on biodiversity loss and climate change,” Ms Yourell said.
“He should at the very least be adopting the precautionary principle and refusing these licences to the coursers, not least because of the presence of a deadly disease, RHD2, in the country, with the disease having been detected in a number of hares and rabbits in 2019.
“At that time, the then Minister Josefa Madigan revoked the licence, because of the risk of spread of this disease due to keeping hares, usually solitary creatures, together in coursing compounds.”
However, a few pro-coursing TDs from Fine Gael piled on the pressure and in October of 2019, she capitulated to their demands, reinstating the licence.
Although dogs are now muzzled, hare injuries and deaths from being mauled by greyhounds continue in coursing.
Last year at a coursing meeting in Loughrea, six hares were pinned down by greyhounds. Three hares died as a result.