Hare severely mauled and dumped in box at Limerick coursing meeting
24 November 2016

More shocking video footage captured by the Irish Council Against Bloodsports confirms that the suffering is continuing for hares. Our footage from a coursing meeting in Ardpatrick and Kilfinane in County Limerick shows a hare hit by greyhounds and desperately trying to escape before being caught and severely mauled. After a prolonged battering, the hare is pulled from the grip of the dogs and dumped in a wooden box.

Arts & Heritage Minister Heather Humphreys, who has responsibility for the licensing of this barbarity, declared during the debate on Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan's Bill to ban hare coursing last June that the hare netting licence conditions and the muzzling of greyhounds have demonstrated "positive outcomes for hares" during coursing, but this and other video evidence gathered in the last couple of weeks at just three of the several coursing meetings that have taken place, utterly belie this silly assertion. In fact, her claims are entirely farcical, as no amount of conditions, rules and regulations, monitoring by wildlife rangers or vets in attendance at coursing meetings will prevent hares from being mauled by greyhounds.

Hare coursing is inherently and intrinsically cruel, and every single hare snatched from the wild to be used as live bait for greyhounds will suffer fear, terror and stress. This barbarism should have long since been consigned to the dustbin of history, but our legislators turned a blind eye and despicably decided to keep this heinous cruelty going when 114 TDs voted down Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan's Bill last June. SHAME ON THE LOT OF THEM!!!

We lag far behind other countries when it comes to our treatment of animals. England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have long since banned hare coursing, leaving the Republic of Ireland as the last bastion of this backwoods barbarism.

This latest highlighted mauling follows similar incidents filmed at coursing meetings in Loughrea and Ballingar in recent weeks

ICABS is renewing our appeal to the government to show compassion for the Irish Hare and do the right thing by banning coursing.

We are again contacting the 114 TDs who shamefully lined up in Dail Eireann in June to vote AGAINST a ban on hare coursing and asking them to watch the videos and pledge to support a ban at the next voting opportunity.

Hare coursing must be ended in Ireland. Please join us as we redouble our efforts to push for a long overdue ban. Send the email below, sign and share the petitions, call the Ministers and contact your local TDs. Thank you.

 ACTION ALERT 

Sign and share petitions

Ireland: Ban Cruel Hare Coursing
https://www.change.org/p/ireland-ban-cruel-hare-coursing

Save Irish hares from cruel coursing
https://www.change.org/p/save-irish-hares-from-cruel-coursing

Email "BAN HARE COURSING NOW" TO Heather.Humphreys@oireachtas.ie, ministers.office@ahg.gov.ie, taoiseach@taoiseach.gov.ie, wildlifelicence@ahg.gov.ie, Gerry.Leckey@ahg.gov.ie, michael.creed@oir.ie

Leave a comment on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/heather.humphreysfg
https://www.facebook.com/endakennyofficial/
https://www.facebook.com/michaelcreedtd/

Tel: +353 (0)1-631 3802 or (01) 631 3800 (Heather Humphreys)
Tel: +353 (0)1-6194020 (Enda Kenny)
Tel: +353 (0)1-607 2000 (Michael Creed)

Contact all your local TDs now. Demand that they urgently push for a ban on hare coursing and all bloodsports.

Visit the Oireachtas website for names of TDs and their email addresses http://www.oireachtas.ie/members-hist/default.asp?housetype=0&HouseNum=32&disp=mem

Write to your TDs at: Dail Eireann, Leinster House, Kildare Street, Dublin 2. Tel: 01-618 3000 or 1890 337 889.

Please also arrange a meeting with your TDs at their local clinics.

THE TDs WHO VOTED AGAINST A BAN ON HARE COURSING

Fine Gael: 46 TDs
Fianna Fail: 36 TDs
Sinn Fein: 16 TDs
Labour Party: 5 TDs
Independents: 11 TDs

Gerry Adams (Sinn Fein, Louth)
Bobby Aylward (Fianna Fail, Carlow Kilkenny)
Maria Bailey (Fine Gael, Dún Laoghaire)
Sean Barrett (Fine Gael, Dún Laoghaire)
John Brassill (Fianna Fail, Kerry County)
Declan Breathnach (Fianna Fail, Louth)
Pat Breen (Fine Gael, Clare)
Colm Brophy (Fine Gael, Dublin South West)
James Browne (Fianna Fail, Wexford)
Richard Bruton (Fine Gael, Dublin Bay North)
Pat Buckley (Sinn Fein, Cork East)
Peter Burke (Fine Gael, Longford Westmeath)
Joan Burton (Labour Party, Dublin West)
Mary Butler (Fianna Fail, Waterford)
Catherine Byrne (Fine Gael, Dublin South Central)
Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail, Meath East)
Jackie Cahill (Fianna Fail, Tipperary)
Dara Calleary (Fianna Fail, Mayo)
Sean Canney (Independent, Galway East)
Ciaran Cannon (Fine Gael, Galway East)
Joe Carey (Fine Gael, Clare)
Pat Casey (Fianna Fail, Wicklow)
Shane Cassells (Fianna Fail, Meath West)
Lisa Chambers (Fianna Fail, Mayo)
Jack Chambers (Fianna Fail, Dublin West)
Niall Collins (Fianna Fail, Limerick County)
Michael Collins (Independent, Cork South West)
Marcella Corcoran Kennedy (Fine Gael, Offaly)
Simon Coveney (Fine Gael, Cork South Central)
Barry Cowen (Fianna Fail, Offaly)
David Cullinane (Sinn Fein, Waterford)
John Curran (Fianna Fail, Dublin Mid West)
Michael D’Arcy (Fine Gael, Wexford)
Jim Daly (Fine Gael, Cork South West)
John Deasy (Fine Gael, Waterford)
Patrick Deering (Fine Gael, Carlow Kilkenny)
Regina Doherty (Fine Gael, Meath East)
Pearse Doherty (Sinn Fein, Donegal)
Paschal Donohoe (Fine Gael, Dublin Central)
Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail, Clare)
Andrew Doyle (Fine Gael, Wicklow)
Bernard Durkan (Fine Gael, Kildare North)
Damien English (Fine Gael, Meath West)
Martin Ferris (Sinn Fein, Kerry County)
Frances Fitzgerald (Fine Gael, Dublin Mid West)
Michael Fitzmaurice (Independent, Roscommon Galway)
Peter Fitzpatrick (Fine Gael, Louth)
Charles Flanagan (Fine Gael, Laois)
Sean Fleming (Fianna Fail, Laois)
Brendan Griffin (Fine Gael, Kerry County)
Simon Harris (Fine Gael, Wicklow)
Michael Harty (Independent, Clare)
Sean Haughey (Fianna Fail, Dublin Bay North)
Seamus Healy (Unemployed Action Group, Tipperary)
Michael Healy-Rae (Independent, Kerry County)
Danny Healy-Rae (Independent, Kerry County)
Martin Heydon (Fine Gael, Kildare South)
Brendan Howlin (Labour Party, Wexford)
Paul Kehoe (Fine Gael, Wexford)
Enda Kenny (Fine Gael, Mayo)
Martin Kenny (Sinn Fein, Sligo Leitrim)
Seán Kyne (Fine Gael, Galway West)
John Lahart (Fianna Fail, Dublin South West)
Michael Lowry (Independent, Tipperary)
Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail, Sligo Leitrim)
Josepha Madigan (Fine Gael, Dublin Rathdown)
Micheál Martin (Fianna Fail, Cork South Central)
Mary Lou McDonald (Sinn Fein, Dublin Central)
Helen McEntee (Fine Gael, Meath East)
Michael McGrath (Fianna Fail, Cork South Central)
Mattie McGrath (Independent, Tipperary)
John McGuinness (Fianna Fail, Carlow Kilkenny)
Tony McLoughlin (Fine Gael, Sligo Leitrim)
Denise Mitchell (Sinn Fein, Dublin Bay North)
Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Fine Gael, Dún Laoghaire)
Kevin “Boxer” Moran (Independent, Longford Westmeath)
Michael Moynihan (Fianna Fail, Cork North West)
Imelda Munster (Sinn Fein, Louth)
Dara Murphy (Fine Gael, Cork North Central)
Eoghan Murphy (Fine Gael, Dublin Bay South)
Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail, Roscommon Galway)
Margaret Murphy-O’Mahony (Fianna Fail, Cork South West)
Denis Naughten (Independent, Roscommon Galway)
Hildegarde Naughten (Fine Gael, Galway West)
Tom Neville (Fine Gael, Limerick County)
Carol Nolan (Sinn Fein, Offaly)
Michael Noonan (Fine Gael, Limerick City)
Éamon Ó Cuív (Fianna Fail, Galway West)
Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Sinn Fein, Cork South Central)
Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Sinn Fein, Dublin South Central)
Jim O’Callaghan (Fianna Fail, Dublin Bay South)
Kate O’Connell (Fine Gael, Dublin Bay South)
Kevin O’Keeffe (Fianna Fail, Cork East)
Fiona O’Loughlin (Fianna Fail, Kildare South)
Louise O’Reilly (Sinn Fein, Dublin Fingal)
Frank O’Rourke (Fianna Fail, Kildare North)
Willie O'Dea (Fianna Fail, Limerick City)
Patrick O'Donovan (Fine Gael, Limerick County)
Fergus O'Dowd (Fine Gael, Louth)
Willie Penrose (Labour Party, Longford Westmeath)
John Paul Phelan (Fine Gael, Carlow Kilkenny)
Maurice Quinlivan (Sinn Fein, Limerick City)
Anne Rabbitte (Fianna Fail, Galway East)
Michael Ring (Fine Gael, Mayo)
Noel Rock (Fine Gael, Dublin North West)
Brendan Ryan (Labour Party, Dublin Fingal)
Eamon Scanlon (Fianna Fail, Sligo Leitrim)
Sean Sherlock (Labour Party, Cork East)
Brendan Smith (Fianna Fail, Cavan Monaghan)
Brian Stanley (Sinn Fein, Laois)
David Stanton (Fine Gael, Cork East)
Peadar Tóibín (Sinn Fein, Meath West)
Robert Troy (Fianna Fail, Longford Westmeath)
Dr. Leo Varadkar (Fine Gael, Dublin West)

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