Cutting off the financial lifeline to cruel hare coursing

international | animal rights | opinion/analysis

Monday May 28, 2012 11:17

by Ban Hare Coursing in Ireland

We wonder if you could help us win a crucial battle in the ongoing campaign against cruel hare coursing in Ireland.

As the campaign to persuade the Irish government to ban hare coursing continues, financial sponsorship is keeping this horrific practise alive.

Hare coursing: Being kept alive by financial sponsorship

In Ireland, as you may know, hare coursing events are staged in wire-enclosed fields. Though muzzled, the greyhounds inflict agonising injuries on the hares as a result of mauling them, forcibly striking the animals, pinning them to the ground, or literally tossing them into the air like playthings. We include links below to brief films of this activity.

Though many small sponsors have withdrawn support from hare coursing in Ireland, mainly in response to appeals from the various animal rights/protection groups, a few companies persist in pumping money into the practise.

The major sponsor is Greyhound and Pet World, which gives massive financial backing to hare coursing events. In particular it sponsors the annual marathon three-day hare coursing “festival” in which captive hares are terrorized and subjected to horrific injuries for three successive days on a converted racecourse.

Without this kind of sponsorship, many hare coursing clubs would have to cease their activities due to lack of funding. Already the number of clubs operating throughout the country has decreased over the past twenty years for this very reason.

We are therefore appealing for the help of other groups in our bid to persuade this major hare coursing sponsor, Greyhound and Pet World, to stop financing the practise.

Bearing in mind that sponsorship is the very lifeblood of this appalling animal cruelty, we’d be grateful if you (or you members) could send a message to Greyhound and Pet World, asking the company to cease all financial sponsorship of hare coursing in Ireland. A brief email, letter, or phone call would suffice.

Here are the company’s contact details:

Address: Greyhound and Pet World, Abbeyfeale, Co. Limerick, Ireland.

Email: greyhounds@eircom.net

Phone: (from outside Ireland) 00 353 6831389

And from within Ireland: 068-31389.

Here is a brief film showing exactly what happens in hare coursing as practiced in Ireland:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D58qbzC-GI4&feature=play...edded

Footage of the “Irish Cup” hare coursing event; held on Limerick racecourse in the last weekend of February 2012:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL741E0B6DA3CBB057