Hear the pitiful cry of an Irish hare caught in a coursing net

The pitiful cry of a hare caught in a coursing net
25 September 2013

You can listen to the report in its entirety on the RTE Website. To hear the cry of the hare caught in the hare coursing net, forward to the 6 minute 20 second mark.
Download an MP3 podcast of the show or listen to RTE's mp3 below.

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(Forward to 06:20 to hear the cry of the hare)

Hear the pitiful cry of one of the thousands of Irish Hares cruelly netted from the wild every year for coursing. The netted hare was heard as part of a pro-coursing report on the Today Show With Sean O'Rourke.

Reporter Brian O'Connell went out with the coursers to catch hares and recorded what he described as sounding "like a child crying".

"We started the night by walking around several fields and the lads had nets with them," he outlined in the report. "The nets were strung across two sticks. They [the coursers] knew the paths that the hares were likely to take in crossing from field to field."

O'Connell said that he and the coursers "set the nets at about half six and then we waited for about an hour for it to get dark."

"When it did get dark, the plan was to walk along the ditches and hopefully we would rouse a hare and then they'd run through one of the gaps where we had a net tied across," he continued. Disregarding the plight of hares caught in nets, he quipped that "if nothing else, it was great exercise - you were out for a couple of hours in the fresh air."

"I'd pretty much given up hope of catching one of them," he said later in the report. "We walked around for around half an hour and we'd split in to two groups...As we were walking along, I suddenly heard what sounded to me like a child crying - a very high piercing sound...we went quickly to check the nets nearby and as we got closer we could see and hear a hare in the net."

Brian O'Connell commented that he "wasn't there to make a judgement on coursing" but ICABS believes the report should at least have acknowledged the suffering caused to hares and the injuries and deaths recorded every coursing season. Instead, listeners were presented with a whitewashed image of coursing in which claims by the coursers went unchallenged.

We have lodged a complaint to RTE about the report's lack of balance and are calling for the opportunity to come on to the show to expose the reality of coursing.

Feedback comments read out on the show: "A lot of private hare catchers sell hares to trainers who have greyhounds in big finals and who want to blood them with a hare." "Sean how can you possibly refer to coursing as a sport? It is shameful animal cruelty which most people want banned." Today Show With Sean O'Rourke, 24 September 2013.

A tweet posted by Brian O'Connell along with a photo of the captured hare.

ACTION ALERT

Download a podcast of the show and send in your feedback.

Email: todaysor@rte.ie
Call: 1850 715 900
Text: 51551
Tweet: @TodaySOR @oconnellbrian
Tweet to @TodaySOR

Sign anti-coursing petitions
Petition to Ban horrific Hare Coursing Cruelty in Ireland
Stop sponsoring hare coursing in Ireland
Find more petitions on our Petitions Page

Ask Minister Deenihan to show compassion, respect the wishes of the Irish majority and revoke the 2013-14 coursing licence he issued.

Jimmy Deenihan, TD
Minister for Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht Affairs
Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht
23 Kildare Street
Dublin 2

Email: jimmy.deenihan@oireachtas.ie
cc: taoiseach@taoiseach.gov.ie
Tel: (01) 631 3804
Fax: (01) 661 1201

Constituency Details
18A The Square, Listowel, Co Kerry
Telephone: 068-57446
Fax: 068-57805

In 2003, Enda Kenny told ICABS: "I am opposed to the practice of live hare coursing." Today, join us in urging him to intervene to stop another season of coursing.

An Taoiseach, Enda Kenny
Department of the Taoiseach,
Government Buildings,
Upper Merrion Street, Dublin 2
Email: taoiseach@taoiseach.gov.ie
Telephone: 01-6194020
Fax: 01-6764048

Urge your local TDs to back a ban on cruel hare coursing:
Find out the name of your TDs and their email addresses.

Write to your TDs at:
Dail Eireann
Leinster House
Kildare Street
Dublin 2.

Coursing cruelty catalogue 2013

The 2013-14 hare coursing licence issued by Jimmy Deenihan and the NPWS

Videos: Ireland's Hare Coursing Cruelty