Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien has been urged not to issue any licences for the upcoming hare coursing season.
Concerns about the welfare of pregnant hares have been raised by Social Democrats TD and party spokesperson on climate action and biodiversity, Jennifer Whitmore.
The deputy criticised that in the same piece of legislation that is supposed to protect hares, the minister is permitted to issue licences for their capture for the purpose of live coursing.
The Irish hare is protected under the Wildlife Acts and can only be captured, tagged or killed under licence. Licences to capture and tag hares are issued by Minister O’Brien.
The minister must “immediately suspend” the granting of licences for the 2023/2024 coursing season until there is a full examination of the issues regarding pregnant hares, Whitmore said.
Deputy Whitmore added that she recently introduced a bill in the Dáil that, if passed, would “remove the ability” of the minister to issue these licences.
Hare coursing
Hare coursing is administered by the Irish Coursing Club (ICC), which is a body set up under the Greyhound Industry Act, 1958, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage said.
Commenting on the conditions of the licences issued to coursing clubs, which state that injured or pregnant hares shall not be taken under the licence, the deputy said:
“However, coursing clubs have no way of determining if hares are pregnant upon capture. As things stand, I do not believe that it is possible for coursing clubs to adhere to the licence conditions as they are written.”
ICC guidance states that any pregnant hare shall not be coursed and shall be released back to the wild at the location from which it was caught “as soon as possible”.
Despite the ICC’s own guidelines, according to Deputy Whitmore, the “relevant licence condition does not say obviously pregnant – it just says pregnant”.
She believes it is “highly unlikely that clubs have the ability to ascertain early pregnancy and therefore would be at risk of operating outside the terms of the licence”.
“I have looked at the reports of several coursing clubs and can find no records of any captured hares being released on the basis that they are pregnant.
“From an animal welfare and biodiversity perspective, I am strongly opposed to hare coursing – an archaic and cruel activity that does not enjoy popular support,” the deputy said.
Irish hares
Under the EU Habitats Directive, member states are required to manage hares sustainably, and make a detailed report every six years on the conservation status of all listed species.
Ireland’s most recent report in 2019 found that the species is in “favourable conservation status and coursing was not considered to be a significant risk”, the department said.
In addition, the department said, the most recent Red Data List for Mammals in Ireland confirmed that the species is “not threatened”; it assessed the Irish hare as “least concern”.
A recent study by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) compared the survival, movements, home ranges and dispersal of hares after coursing and/or translocation.
The NPWS study found that there was “no evidence” that coursed and/or translocated hares suffered higher levels of mortality than control hares.