John Fitzgerald writes:
Animal welfare people who tried to film Irish hare coursing have in the past have been ejected from the grounds, beaten up, or at least given sturdy verbal warnings, because “unauthorized photography” is strictly prohibited at these events.
A brave woman went to a coursing event in County Limerick last weekend to secretly film part of the fixture. She continued filming until she was spotted by coursing officials.
But it seems that this particular coursing club has adopted a new and more sophisticated way of censoring video coverage of its “sport“.
An official approached her and shone a dazzling bright light at her camera.
Before this “intervention” she had managed to capture scenes that clearly show hares being hit hard; their frail bodies sent tumbling or being flung into the air. Others can be seen running in circles, even leaping over the dogs, in their frantic bid to escape.
This footage demonstrates that muzzling of greyhounds in Ireland does not protect the hares, as claimed by coursing clubs and their political friends.
Have a look at how the camera woman’s secret recording was interrupted by The Shining…
Previously: Meanwhile, In Tipperary
comedic, like what did the weirdo with the torch think he was achieving exactly, as I understand it camera jamming usually involves use of specific grade IR led’s and even then it’s a finniky setup, tricky to achieve.
It just seems like a weird thing to be into …
This primitivism needs to be stamped out.
I thought there was a required observation by the National Parks and Wildlife Service at coursing meetings.
The NPWS rangers observe only some coursing events throughout the season.
…those lights would be part of the paraphernalia used to catch the hares…they are widely used for nocturnal hunting/poaching called lamping…Patrick Kavanagh gives a good description of lamping for salmon in his book – The Green Fool…
thank you broadsheet for finally providing some good coursing coverage as it can be difficult to find online, great athleticism on show! as an FYI to the people above insinuating that coursing is more associated with people of a more unsettled persuasion this is not the case, very strong in county Limerick with country folk
People of the land….
The common clay of the new West…
…you know..morons!
The ” good coursing coverage” includes footage of hares suffering in the name of fun and games and also evidence of the coursing clubs’ obsession with preventing exposure of their recreational cruelty to animals.
It’s a deeply weird pastime.
However it is several orders of magnitude less cruel than what happens in battery farms and abattoirs on a daily basis.
The anti-coursing folk seem to be able to raise outrage amongst people who every happily eat a roast chicken of a Sunday.
Veganism is the only ethical way to go. Most readers – me included – have no interest!
Opinion polls show that a big majority wants hare coursing banned. So there is an interest in the subject. Re Veganism…it will be a long time before slaughter houses close, but torturing animals for sport may be abolished in the meantime. LIkewise, many people who eat meat would not throw a cat into a bonfire or kick dog to death for fun. Intensive farming is the worst of the meat producing methods, but unfortunately the message about the truth behind such treatment of animals has yet to filter through to many people. Some day, maybe, the whole world will go vegan, but right now at least some of the really horrific practices need to be addressed with a greater urgency.
The treatment of greyhounds at the hands of these cumpkins is also appalling. Banned on the more civilised mainland.
You’re referring to the Brexiteers?
If there is no distress or cruelty to the hares then why is videoing and photographing prohibited. That footage shows what the hares have to endure. Even the hounds take some bad falls. Well done that brave woman exposing what is a disgusting and primitive practice.
Its not fun and games, its just games its called coursing. there is zero evidence to suggest to suggest that a muzzled dog can damage a hare, coursing provides a hare with the rare opportunity of performing in front of a large crowd and spending time in the back of a dark van, if we simply ban coursing you would be depriving these hares of a gret day that breaks up their otherwise hum drum existence