The World Wildlife Fund’s report on the decline in global wildlife populations is an out-and-out shocker.. Humans appear hell-bent on destroying our natural environment, the wonderful species we share this planet with, and ultimately ourselves.
Ireland is not exempt from this reckless behavior and the craven political inaction that threatens wildlife. The curlew is now on the brink of extinction in Ireland. It wasn't until 2012, when its numbers had plummeted by up to 96%, that a long overdue ban on curlew shooting was finally put in place.
The hen harrier has declined by a devastating 50% in numbers over the past forty years, and yet a conservation plan proposed by Heritage Minister Josepha Madigan would, if fully implemented, push it closer to extinction, forcing the endangered bird to breed in completely unsuitable parts of the countryside.
And then there is the shameful treatment of our iconic Irish Hare, a sub-species of the Mountain Hare that provides a living link with the Ice Age of 10,000 years ago. It has been in decline for decades due mainly to loss of habitat resulting from urbanization, and modern farm practices that create vast mono-cultural tracts of grass and cereals.
Habitat loss for the Irish Hare is exacerbated by the activities of more than seventy coursing clubs, and widespread poaching. Despite being aware of its fragile conservation status, successive governments have shamefully seen fit to license the capture of up to 10,000 hares each year for use as live bait.
So, while polar bears sit forlornly on shrinking ice floes, elephants and rhinos are shot for their tusks and ivory, and lions, tigers, monkeys, bears and giraffes are pointlessly blasted to death by trophy hunters, we have created our own little hell for wildlife in Ireland.
We could do our bit (however small) for the magnificent creatures with which share this planet by at least outlawing blood sports and offering effective protection to all endangered species on this island.
Delighted that Bad Hare Days is back in print from today. It's already available as an ebook (free from several websites) but many people have asked me if I'd consider re-publishing it as a paperback, which I've just done. It carries some of the reviews of the 2008 (first) edition.
It’s an account of my experience of the campaign against hare coursing in Ireland, including how at one point renegade elements in the police force tried to suppress opposition to the blood sport via organized harassment and bullying of campaigners!
Not everyone’s experience of campaigning for animal protection has been as fraught with danger and sinister goings on, but I’m sure many will identify with what happened to some of us here in Ireland, as recounted in the book.
In late September a Bill proposing a ban on fur farming in Ireland comes before the Irish parliament. Thanks to intensive lobbying by animal protection groups and members of the public, in Ireland and beyond our shores, four Irish political parties have pledged to support the Bill. However, the largest opposition party, Fianna Fail, has yet to decide its stance on the Bill.
If this party opts to back the Bill its support would result in either 1) the Bill passing because it would have then majority support in parliament or 2) the government, knowing it would lose a vote on the Bill, agreeing to ban fur farming of its own accord. Either outcome would mean the end of fur farming in Ireland.
So, the fate of fur faring largely depends on which way the Fianna Party opts to vote on the Bill in September.
With this in mind, we are appealing for a final push to end fur farming in our country…We are asking you to send a message/letter to ALL Fianna Fail parliamentary party members, requesting that they support the Bill to ban fur farming.
You can do this with one email to a “block” list of addresses (of FF members of parliament) provided below. Just copy and paste the list into the “send to” line on your document page and your message will go to everyone on the list.
Here is a sample letter. You could email this, a variant of it, or compose one yourself.
I urge you and your party to support the upcoming Bill to ban fur farming in Ireland. On Ireland's three remaining fur farms, tens of thousands of mink are permanently caged and at when six months old, they are pulled from the cages and poisoned to death with Carbon Monoxide before the fur is pulled from their bones. It is time for Ireland to join the growing list of countries in the EU and around the world which have already banned fur farming. The Fianna Fail Party can help to end this hell on earth for animals. Please back the Bill when it comes before Ireland’s parliament.
The vile practice of fur farming may soon be banned in Ireland. The best prospect to date will present itself in late September this year when Ireland’s parliament considers a Bill proposing the abolition of fur farming. Because the vote is expected to be very close, your support, in the form of an email to Irish politicians, could be crucial to the outcome.
In 2004, an anti fur farming Bill was defeated by 67 votes to 50 in parliament. In 2010, fur farming was about to be banned but the coalition government of the time, which included the Green Party, fell before the legislation could be passed.
Hopefully, the Bill in September will become law.
What fur farming involves…
More than 200,000 mink are killed on Irish fur farms every year. These wild animals are confined in small spaces for the duration of their short lives.
The cages that hold them are each about the size of two shoe boxes. Though semi-aquatic by nature they are denied a watery environment on the farms. Their captors feed them on bits liquidized fish organs, which they have to “earn” by licking at these through the tops of their cages.
Mink are solitary creatures in the wild whereas on the farms they are forced to mingle and co-exist with other mink. They react against these cruel and deviant conditions by indulging in repeated self harm and cannibalism, while also suffering from extreme levels of stress as they struggle in vain to escape.
At the age of six months, they are taken from their cages for slaughter. Up to forty mink at a time are squeezed into the killing box, and gassed to death by carbon monoxide. The skin is then ripped from their bodies. Some mink are still alive and unconscious when removed from the box and have to be “dispatched” before skinning.
In late September, parliament will VOTE on this proposal. To become law, the Bill to ban fur farming must be approved by a simple majority of the 157 members of parliament.
This is where you can really help and influence the outcome. Please (time permitting) send a message to members of the Irish parliament, asking them to support the Bill to Ban fur farming in Ireland.
Simply email the message to yourself, with a “blind back-up copy” to each of the three lists below, and all of the politicians will receive your message/appeal. That requires sending the email three times, with a different list “copied” each time.
Thank you!
John Fitzgerald, Campaign for the Abolition of Cruel Sports
Letter published in Irish Examiner and other Irish newspapers:
The plight of those sixteen malnourished puppies found in County Galway was heartbreaking, a shocking reminder that puppy farming still thrives, as it will continue to do until people stop buying dogs from unscrupulous dealers instead of adopting them from rescue centres.
Unfortunately this incident is just part of the bigger scandal that is our attitude as a nation to animal welfare. Not a week goes by without horses being found starving and abandoned on roadsides, or shallow graves of unwanted greyhound being unearthed...horses and dogs that have outlived their value to sulky racing and the track respectively.
Lack of enforcement of existing laws is lamentable, but the fact that other laws permit the most horrific forms of animal cruelty is beyond sickening. A license will soon be granted by a government department allowing coursing clubs to net thousands of hares for the upcoming season.
Those timid creatures, which grace our countryside and ought to be fully protected, are instead deemed fair game by our politicians for use in a blood sport that most other EU countries have banned. The only guards you’ll see at a coursing event, when the hares are being terrorised before a frenzied mob, are the ones directing traffic outside the baiting venue.
Throughout August and September, cub hunting -or cubbing- will be organised nationwide in preparation for the official hunting season later in the year. Coverts known to contain litters of fox cubs will be encircled by hunters, some mounted and others on foot. The sportspeople will stand about sipping port in the early morning as their novice hounds are “blooded”. The pack is released to attack and kill the unsuspecting cubs. Any animal attempting to escape the circle of death is beaten back with whips or sticks.
Other wild animals face death, not in the wild, but in the throes of unnatural captivity. Every year, more than 200,000 mink are gassed on Irish fur farms with carbon monoxide so the skin can be ripped from their bodies. This happens following six months of stressful confinement in tiny cages.
A Bill to outlaw this practise will come before the Dail after the summer recess and it remains to be seen whether compassion will prevail over greed and political expediency.
Mahatma Gandhi said that “the greatness of nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” Where does that leave Ireland? We need to update legislation to protect all animals, domestic, wild, and agricultural, and properly enforce the laws already on our statute books. Animals have done nothing to us to deserve the cocktail of horrors we inflict on them. Let’s make a start at easing their plight.
An intriguing article has appeared on a number of indymedia sites but was quickly removed from the Ireland Indymedia site. The article claims that at least one coursing club in Ireland fears the threat posed by Japanese Knotweed to its hare baiting venue more than it fears animal rights campaigners...
Here is how it appeared on the NYC Indymedia site:
Hare Coursing blood sport Club in a Knot!
A Southern Ireland-based hare coursing club fears Japanese Knotweed far more than animal rights!
By Rural Dilemmas
Delegates at a recent meeting of the club were discussing a number of problems besetting the club and drawing up plans for the next coursing season that begins in late September when a member raised the subject of Japanese Knotweed and the threat it posed to coursing fields.
He revealed he suspected an adjoining field to the club’s venue was infested with the invasive plant and warned that if it spread to the club’s field it would be “catastrophic” and the club “might as well disband.”
Other members said they were aware of the problems posed by Japanese Knotweed, one citing an environmentalist who had explained to him the issues involved: The expert told him it was a non-native herbaceous plant that was very difficult, and massively expensive, to get rid of. Its root system can penetrate the ground to a depth of 2-3 metres and spread as much as 7metres. It was capable of undermining building foundations, roads, walls, and it could grow up through tiny cracks in concrete.
It reproduced easily…even the “tiniest fragment” of its stem or root could reproduce, grow into a new plant, and cause further infestation. Any property upon which the plant was spotted suffered immediate devaluation. House sales had fallen through because of it.
The environmentalist had stressed that the knotweed could be spread in all sorts of ways…on the sole of a shoe, by a car or tractor wheel, or even dropped by a bird overflying the coursing field. Another club member cautioned that anyone with a grudge against a coursing club, maybe a disgruntled neighbor, or someone just intent on mischief, “could flick a piece of the plant over a wall or ditch…without even entering the field”, and this could lead to an infestation.
Another member claimed that a hunt club he had dealings with had problems with the invasive plant and they suspected, but couldn’t prove, that hostile elements were behind the infestation.
All the delegates agreed that vigilance was essential to keep Japanese Knotweed off the coursing fields as it posed a far worse threat to the future of the sport than the “antis” or falling attendances at fixtures.
The Irish Hare is in decline, due to a combination of pressure from coursing and hunting and continuous loss of habitat to urbanization and aggressive modern farming practices. The acclaimed Irish playwright, John B Keane, warned of the hare’s sad plight as far back as 1973.
An article he wrote on the subject has just been reproduced. The following has appeared on the Facebook page of the Irish Council Against Blood Sports:
Irish playwright and novelist John B Keane warned about coursing's devastating impact on the Irish Hare in a column published 45 years ago, it has emerged.
In the column, reproduced in the Limerick Leader this week, he warned that coursing clubs are driving the Irish hare to extinction.
"There can be no doubt that the hare population of Ireland is seriously on the decline and the way things are going there won’t be any left in the end of another decade," John wrote in the November 1973 article.
He refers to areas which "once abounded in hares" and were "once alive with hares but now they are as rare in these places as grouse".
"The reason for the decline in the hare population in North Kerry and East Limerick is obvious," he wrote. "In this area there is a concentration of major coursing meetings every winter and for these, hundreds of hares are required annually. Naturally, the hares had to disappear."
"Something will have to be done quickly if the hare is to survive," he concluded.
Shamefully, over 45 years after this was written, coursing clubs are free to persecute the Irish Hare, despite fears that the species is in trouble, with dwindling numbers.
Hare coursing (branded by John B Keane as "the most controversial of all diversions") is licensed by Minister Josepha Madigan and the National Parks and Wildlife Service and is responsible for major interference with the species during seven months of the year (August to February). Thousands of hares are snatched from the wild in nets, held in captivity for months, manhandled, fed an unnatural diet and eventually forced to run for their lives from pairs of greyhounds.
Every coursing season, hares are injured and killed on coursing fields and those who survive the ordeal are at risk of later dying as a result of stress-related capture myopathy.
Hares are not only under threat from cruel coursers but also from shooters and hunters with packs of hounds. According to the National Parks and Wildlife Service website, the permitted "hunting period" for the Irish Hare runs from "the 26th day of September in each year and ending on the 28th day of February in the year immediately following that year." The "manner of hunting" is "shooting with firearms; coursing at regulated coursing matches; hunting with packs of beagles and harriers."
Earlier this month, we highlighted a Mooney Goes Wild show on RTE Radio which focused on the translocation of hares from Dublin Airport to areas around Ireland where they are "becoming extinct". Programme presenter Derek Mooney told listeners that while hares are thriving at Dublin Airport, "their numbers elsewhere around the country are dwindling". Speaking on the show, ecologist Dr Karina Dingerkus said that "over the last 50 years, numbers have declined significantly."
She said that the National Parks and Wildlife Service have commissioned Queen's University Belfast to carry out a hare survey this year and next to get a population estimate. "We know that hare populations do fluctuate naturally but we don't know by how much," Dr Dingerkus stated. "We certainly know that numbers have declined."
Later in the programme, she added: "We don't see very many...Certainly over the past 50 years, we know numbers have dropped dramatically...they're in trouble...we do know that they have been dropping over a long period of time." Mooney Goes Wild reporter Terry Flanagan noted that "there is an overall trend over the past number of years and that trend is downwards."
This latest acknowledgement that the Irish Hare is in trouble with numbers having "dropped dramatically" should set alarm bells ringing in Minister Madigan's office and at the NPWS. They should learn from what happened to the curlew, a bird now on the brink of extinction in Ireland.
It wasn't until 2012, when its numbers had plummeted by up to 96%, that a long overdue ban on curlew shooting was finally put in place.
It is now more clear than ever that the Irish Hare must be given full protection. Urgently contact Minister Josepha Madigan and the National Parks and Wildlife Service to demand an immediate ban on hare coursing, hare shooting and hare hunting.
This is a time of year when there is unprecedented demand for live hares. There are many ways of catching live hares. are hunters use nets and they use powerful torches at night but despite these methods there is still a scarcity.
The hares, of course, are used in the most controversial of all diversions, none other than greyhound coursing. They are at present fetching as much as £5 per head.
We will not go into the rights and wrongs of coursing just now. The question I will pose is this: are hares declining in physique?
Have the best specimens been eliminated over the years so that now only the íochtars, as it were, are left? Most West Limerick and North Kerry clubs go to Galway for their hares, although there was a time when Lyreacrompane was the Mecca of all known hare trappers.
There can be no doubt that the hare population of Ireland is seriously on the decline and the way things are going there won’t be any left in the end of another decade.
The late Dan Paddy Andy, the famous Lyreacrompane matchmaker, was a great warrant to direct hunters and trappers after all kinds of game.
Sometimes, he would accompany the hunters and since he was bad in the sight he would often call at a neighbouring house to ask if there were any hares in the area.
His favourite approach was to knock at the door of the house.
The knock would always be answered by a woman. Dan would always ask the same question:
“Any hares in your quarter, missus?”
In Dan’s young day, hundreds of fowlers from a wide area would converge on the vast expanse of Lyre Bog when the shooting season opened.
Amongst these fowlers were many priests. One day, a local priest was hosting an American monsignor. Both were dressed in the usual fowlers’ garb, and Dan had no knowing that they were priests.
They called at his house and were offered tea, which they refused. Finally the local man asked Dan if there was any game in the district.
“Oh by God,” said Dan, “ you came to the right spot, my man.”
So saying, he led the monsignor and the priest along the roadway for a spell. When he came to the junction he pointed towards a nearby hill.
“There’s a cottage up there,” Dan told them, “and there’s a widow there after coming home from England and she’s game to the tail.”
Still all of this has little to do with the problem of the disappearing hare. Dirha Bog and Derk near Duagh and the whole hinterland of Abbeyfeale, Listowel and Newcastle once abounded in hares.
These were a very powerful breed, stockier and stronger than the hares of Galway and Mayo although not as fleet.
Places like Clounleharde and Ballygiltenane, Carraigkerry and Turrarree were once alive with hares but now they are as rare in these places as grouse.
The reason for the decline in the hare population in North Kerry and East Limerick is obvious. In this area there is a concentration of major coursing meetings every winter and for these hundreds of hares are required annually. Naturally, the hares had to disappear.
For instance, the number of nationally known coursing meetings in the area almost passes belief. We start with Glin, one of the foremost meetings in the land.
Then we have Abbeyfeale, Newcastle, Rathkeale, Listowel, Abbeydorney, Ballyduff, Causeway, Tralee, Castleisland and Lixnaw, to mention but some. At no point is there a distance of more than forty miles between any two of these meetings. The number of hares required boggles the imagination.
Something will have to be done quickly if the hare is to survive.
The late, great John B Keane was a “Limerick Leader” columnist for more than 30 years. This column first appeared in the edition of November 24, 1973
The story of a leveret rescued from the ice and snow at Dublin airport has touched the hearts of thousands and footage of Emma, called after the storm, has gone viral.
Emma was fortunate. She was found by the right people and fair play to the compassionate airport officials who intervened to rescue her.
If she had been located elsewhere in Ireland a few weeks ago during the hare coursing season she'd have been treated differently.
Thousands of hares were forced to run from pairs of hyped-up greyhounds at venues nationwide and female hares gave birth to leverets in captivity at some coursing compounds.
To be saved from the worst storm in decades makes Emma one lucky leveret. Sadly, many other hares have not been so lucky over the past five months.
They were terrorised, mauled, and tossed about in front of cheering fans who marked betting cards or swigged from hip flasks as the captured animals performed for them.
It wasn't the weather that made life hell for those hares, though the fields could be muddy or water-logged, but misguided human beings who get a cheap thrill from watching them twist and dodge to avoid death or agonizing injury.
A speedy recovery to Emma the Leveret, and eternal shame to the coursing clubs whose treatment of the gentle Irish Hare makes the Beast from the East, and the even the Wicked Witch of the West, look tame by comparison.
A spectator at the recent "Irish Cup" hare coursing event, held on Limerick racecourse last Saturday, decided to film part of the fixture for later viewing ...but he found himself unexpectedly upset at the plight of the hares and passed on this piece of footage (see below) to animal protection groups.
It shows a hare being struck at high speed by the dogs and sent tumbling head over heels three times from the force of the impact. Coursing fans are audibly cheering the action though one person can be heard saying "ah Jaysus."
Hares struck or mauled in this way in coursing usually die afterwards of their injuries or are "dispatched" (have their necks broken) to put them out of their misery.
This happens at many coursing events and is referred to in reports professionally filed by rangers from the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), who attend a number of fixtures each season in a monitoring capacity.
However, because there is a strict ban on "unauthorised photography" at ALL coursing events it is extremely difficult to obtain footage of what happens to hares used in this archaic "rural pastime" that is banned in many jurisdictions, including Northern Ireland.
This footage from a so-called "showpiece" coursing fixture can be cited as further evidence that muzzling of greyhounds has NOT eliminated cruelty from the practice.
On February 10th animal protection groups will protest outside Powerstown Park, Clonmel, County Tipperary, on the opening day of the National Hare Coursing event.
It will not be the first such demonstration: The campaign to abolish hare coursing has been in progress for more than half a century, since the foundation of the Irish Council Against Blood Sports (ICABS) in 1966. Northern Ireland banned the blood sport in 2011 but here in the Republic it's business as usual for coursing clubs.
Just a few days ago I came across a reminder of how long it is taking to win protection for the gentle Irish Hare south of the border.
In his book Ambiguous Republic-Ireland in the 1970s, historian Diarmuid Ferriter makes reference to the campaign in a chapter entitled The Sporting Irish.
He writes:
In 1973, the Council sought to take advantage of Conservation Year to get its message across about conserving wildlife; harrowing accounts of the torture and distress of the animals that were killed during coursing were also sent to the government. One account of a coursing meeting at Millstreet in County Cork in January 1974 reported on eighty-eight courses resulting in twenty kills:
“I saw the two greyhounds sink their teeth into the hare and twice it wriggled free, only to be snapped up again. It would cry out for several minutes until the men reached the dogs. Their main concern would be recapturing the greyhounds, then finally they would turn to the still living hare and give it a few belts over the head before handing it to a boy of about 13, who would again hit it, since it was still flinching.”
Nowadays coursing greyhounds are muzzled, a reform the government introduced in 1993 with the intention of alleviating the hare’s plight. The move came in response to the late Tony Gregory’s attempt to have coursing banned.
Unfortunately, muzzling only served to make the cruelty less visible. Now, instead of being stretched between competing dogs as in the 1974 fixture referred to above, hares are forcibly struck by the dogs, mauled, or have their bones crushed. Reports filed by rangers from the National Parks and Wildlife Service who attend a number of coursing events each season clearly show that hares continue to suffer horribly. Even the ones that escape physically unscathed can die afterwards in the wild of stress related ailments.
This vile practice should have had no place in the 20th century, let alone the 21st. Will another fifty years have to pass before we consign and confine it to the history books?
* The protest on February 10th will be outside Powerstown Park, venue for the 3 day so-called "festival" of hare coursing. Time: 12-2 pm. Everybody welcome!