At the weekend,
County Limerick.
John Fitzgerald writes:
Defying a ban on “unauthorised photography” members of the Irish Council Against Blood Sports (ICABS) travelled to observe and film part of the “Ardpatrick and Kilfinane” coursing event in County Limerick, held on Saturday and Sunday.
The footage shows hares being terrorised, struck multiple times and mauled into the ground by the muzzled dogs. A hare can be seen in the clutches of a coursing official following a mauling and this animal is clearly having its neck broken.
This footage is significant because it exposes as meaningless the so-called regulations that coursing clubs and some politicians claim “protects” hares and ensures they come to no harm when they are chased by pairs of greyhounds.
This is the so-called “traditional pastime” that TDs backed last year in whipped votes to prevent its proposed abolition, some of them lauding what transpires at these fixtures held nationwide each year between the end of September and the third week of February.