Irish animal rights group slams minister for enabling cruel hare coursing

Ireland — The Irish Council Against Blood Sports (ICABS) has denounced heritage minister James Browne for “shamefully [granting] 2026-27 licences for cruel hare coursing“. The activist group explain that the licences will mean that:

Thousands of hares will be cruelly netted from their habitats, manhandled, transported in crates to coursing enclosures, held in captivity for weeks or months and forced to run for their lives. All the hares will suffer fear and stress and some of those hit and mauled into the ground will sustain broken bones and die from their injuries.

During a coursing event, a terrified wild hare captured from its natural habitat must run, in fear for its life, from muzzled greyhounds while trapped in a confined area. Despite the protection from biting, hares are routinely killed, and dogs frequently injured. One recent horror story involved a hare at a Rathkeale and Limerick city coursing event, who:

…had to be put down by the vet as the femur was visible outside and not attached to the foot of the hare.

This was reported by the Minister of State for nature and biodiversity Christopher O’Sullivan, in response to a question by People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy.

O’Sullivan did his bit for nature and biodiversity by voting for the continued torture and killing of hares. Left-wing parties recently put forward a bill to outlaw the so-called ‘sport’, but were voted down by Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Sinn Féin. The Republic of Ireland is one of only three European countries to still allow the barbaric practice. The others are Portugal and Spain.

Government in Ireland barely regulating barbaric ‘sport’

ICABS denounced both Browne and O’Sullivan, saying:

This is an insult to the majority in Ireland who want this barbaric bloodsport banned and it is a betrayal of the threatened Irish Hare, an icon of biodiversity. You should be protecting this species, not facilitating its persecution.

Browne licensed the clubs despite investigative journalist Patricia Devlin recently showing that the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM):

…inspected just four hare coursing events in five years

Devlin said that records she acquired:

…under Access to Information on the Environment (AIE) revealed that DAFM veterinary inspectors attended just four of around 200 coursing meetings between 2019 and 2023 – and none at all in 2021 or 2023.

She continued:

During those handful of inspections alone, 16 hares were recorded as being “hit” by dogs and one injured greyhound was euthanised.

She points out that DAFM claim to have the sport under “constant review” but “were absent from around 98% of events”. At all four events where they were present, hares were recorded as being struck by the dogs. One report recorded 10 hares killed, though DAFM blamed this on a clerical error. Yet the “inspection report released several years later” still had the original figure.

Adding to the incompetence or indifference about how the archaic bloodsport is regulated, government bodies weren’t able to make up their minds about whose responsibility hare coursing is. Both the National Parks and Wildlife Service and DAFM told Devlin the ‘sport’ fell within the purview of the other.

No tolerance for people who entertain themselves with cruelty

ICABS have recently argued that heritage minister Browne has the right to refuse “all hare coursing licences” on the basis that he is:

…entitled to apply “the precautionary principle” to protect a species.

This follows a High Court decision which ruled that a previous heritage minister, Malcolm Noonan, acted lawfully in 2023 when he banned shooting of four species of duck to ensure their conservation. The National Association of Regional Game Councils challenged the decision, on behalf of their members, whose chosen pastime is apparently murdering endangered birds. However:

The judge ruled the minister had powers to take whatever steps were deemed necessary to maintain the populations of wild birds at satisfactory levels.

The minister’s powers were not:

…circumscribed by any requirement to take any economic or recreational factors into account in making his decision.

Bloodsports practitioners typically tend to exaggerate the economic contribution of these cruel activities. As for the recreational side, in the year 2026, no consideration should be shown to people who choose to entertain themselves by tormenting and murdering other sentient creatures.

77% of the Irish public seem to feel that way about hare coursing, meaning Browne’s recent licensing decision has shown disdain for animal wellbeing, and democracy.

Featured image via the Canary

By Robert Freeman

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