Secretly filmed footage from weekend hare coursing fixture exposes animal cruelty minister says "doesn't happen any more"...

international | environment | press release Tuesday November 22, 2016 17:37 by Ban Hare Coursing in Ireland

Last Saturday the Irish Council Against Bloodsports captured another shocking piece of video footage exposing cruelty in hare coursing...this time at the Ardpatrick and Kilfinane coursing fixture held in County Limerick. At great risk to herself (there's a strict ban on "authorised photography" at coursing events, enforced with threats and sometimes physical assault), Aideen Yourell of ICABS managed to record part of the fixture.

"Sport"?

Her footage clearly shows a hare forcibly struck by greyhounds and desperately trying to escape... before being caught and severely mauled. After a prolonged battering, the hare is pulled away from the dogs, carried off the field and put in a wooden box.

This is precisely the kind of suffering for hares that Heritage Minister Heather Humphries claims no longer happens in coursing due to muzzling of greyhounds. Last June a Bill proposing a ban on the blood sport was defeated by 114 votes to 20 after the Minister assured TDs that hares come to no harm in coursing.

This dramatic video evidence completely discredits the claim that hare coursing is now a humane "sport", as TDs (Irish parliamentarians) like Barry Cowen and Mattie McGrath have repeatedly stated in defence of the activity. Hare coursing is illegal in many jurisdictions, including Britain and NI. The latest evidence should bring forward the day when Ireland also outlaws this obscenity.

Here is part of the video footage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTGE20GX7ik&index=1&lis...8SOX0