Hare coursing: Ireland's shame

I notice that Environment Minister Dick Roche has appealed to developers, builders, farmers, and local authorities to cease or curtail developments that decimate wildlife. I would respect and admire the minister's concern for Ireland's endangered flora and fauna if it weren't for a glaring oversight on the part of successive governments to halt one of the most shameful wildlife abuses of all: live hare coursing.

In December 1993, Ireland's first Red Data Book on vertebrates was launched, containing information on endangered mammals in our country. The Irish hare was among the species deemed to be vulnerable to legal hunting, which included the activities of coursing clubs.

In a foreword to this groundbreaking publication that has become a bible for ecologists and conservationists, the then Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Noel Dempsey, expressed the hope that the book would bring the conservation priorities of the threatened mammals to a wider audience.

Since then, the National Parks and Wildlife Service has designated the Irish hare as "a species of the highest conservation concern".

The hare population has been in decline for many years on this island, north and south. That is why the Northern Ireland Environment Minister, Mr Roche's opposite number up there, has suspended all coursing activities.

But down here the organised netting and baiting of hares by coursing clubs continues unabated. Idiots wielding sticks and roaring like hyenas frighten them into captivity, abducting more than 7,000 of the timid creatures ever year.

While sounding off about protecting wildlife and the environment, the government happily permits this cruel and stupid practise that results in hares being stolen from their natural habitats, confined in unnatural conditions, and then terrorised for the edification of gamblers and voyeurs.

A condition called stress myopathy kills off a high percentage of hares in captivity. This is because they cannot cope with being caged or enclosed after losing their freedom. From the moment a hare is taken from its true home in the wide-open countryside, it is never the same again.

Leaving aside the cruelty involved, this nationwide exploitation of the hare increases pressure on a species facing parallel threats from the monocultural tracts of grass and cereals that disrupt its living patterns and the removal of protective hedges. Once an expanse of growth reaches a mere 25 centimetres, it is worthless to the hare, to which such terrain becomes a virtual desert.

This challenge to the hare's survival is bad enough without having gangs of ghoulish bullies beating their way through its humble habitat...people who regard this animal celebrated in myth and folklore as a mere plaything.

When it has banned hare coursing, the government will be in a better position to advise farmers, developers, builders and local authorities on what is best for Ireland's wildlife.

John Fitzgerald, Callan, Co Kilkenny