Hare coursing shamed again as SIX GREYHOUNDS have tested positive for banned substances at the National Coursing Meeting.

international | animal rights | opinion/analysis

Tuesday April 08, 2014 09:01

by Abolish Hare Coursing in Ireland

Irish greyhound industry in turmoil...

The news that six greyhounds that participated in this year’s National Hare Coursing Festival have tested positive for banned substances can be offered as yet further evidence of the true nature of live hare coursing.

Greyhound and hare alike are cruelly ill-treated in coursing

In addition to being a cruel blood sport, the whole practice of live hare coursing in Ireland is steeped in corruption and illegality.

The fact that the dogs were doped at what is hailed annually as the “showpiece coursing event” of the season adds another sinister dimension to an already discredited activity that many jurisdictions, including Britain and Northern Ireland, have outlawed.

The question arises: If testing for illegal substances were carried out at all the smaller hare coursing events leading up the Grand Final that is the National Coursing Meeting, what might emerge in terms of further damning evidence of malpractice?
Campaigners against hare coursing hope the Gardai and/or the Department of Agriculture will now conduct their own investigations into this scandal, separate from the internal Irish Coursing Club (ICC) inquiry. Doping of greyhounds can be in breach of the Misuse of Drugs Act or Section 11 of the Animal Welfare Act 2013, or both Acts.

Snatching hares from their natural home in the countryside, confining them for weeks in enclosures-a totally unnatural situation for them- and then forcing them to run from dogs in a wired off field or park...is bad enough without also subjecting the dogs to a cruel, greed-motivated practise that can result in heart attacks or permanent damage to their central nervous systems.

Hare coursing is often defended and romanticised as a wonderful bucolic “sport” that resonates with nature when it is anything but that, and the use of drugs to enhance the performance of greyhounds is as far removed from that idyllic image as one can get.

In the light of these latest revelations, TDs and Senators to take a closer look at this activity- hare coursing- that the Oireachtas voted to have exempted from prohibition under the Animal Health and Welfare Act.

The Department of Agriculture consider requesting the ICC (Irish Coursing Club) to extend drug testing of greyhounds to ALL hare coursing events, or, if it refuses to do so, that the Department initiate its own drug testing at these events.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrU088Qz3RI