Dear Editor,

The hare coursing season has just commenced, despite renewed pleas from animal welfare organisations and conservation groups like the Irish Wildlife Trust. Two years after Northern Ireland banned this medieval ‘sport’, our own law, backed by the political establishment, still permits the capture of hares for organised baiting sessions.

Coursing clubs claim that without them hares would die out because they would lose the ‘protection’ that their wonderful ‘country sport’ offers the species.

Given that the Irish hare has been around since the last Ice Age and that hares thrive in the Arctic where there are no coursing clubs (or politicians), I think we can safely conclude that the fleet-footed creature can get along fine without any ‘help’ from people who use them as live bait.

It may be that certain politicians of all parties really believe the official coursing club line that the Irish Hare benefits from being forced to twist and turn and dodge before two hyped-up blood-crazed greyhounds; or that a hare’s life or conservation status is enhanced by being mauled, pinned to the ground, tossed up into the air like a plaything, or subjected to Capture Myopathy – a condition that can debilitate or kill any hare that undergoes an exceptionally stressful ordeal.

But many other people do not believe such inane propaganda. Politics itself has often been likened to a blood sport, but the politicians who connive to allow hare coursing to continue, need to realise that even the lowest points of their political careers pale to nothing beside the horrors of this real life blood sport.

Thanking you.

Sincerely,

John Fitzgerald,

Campaign for the Abolition Of Cruel Sports