No, it is not. Ireland is almost alone among modern democracies that continue to keep in force legislation which gives legal sanction to the torture, mutilation and killing of animals as a public spectacle, what we call live hare coursing. What I ask in this Bill is for acceptance of what every Member of this House knows to be the truth: that this practice is barbaric, cruel and wrong and that the law must be changed. I readily accept that many rural Members have come under great pressure to oppose the Bill. I know that coursing clubs can be powerful entrenched groups in many rural constituencies. I equally accept that I am not under any such pressure. What I ask — it is no small request — is that Members decide for themselves whether there is need to change this cruel practice. If they decide there is such a need, in the interests of justice I ask them not to oppose this Bill on Second Stage.
I want to describe in a little detail what is involved in live hare coursing and I want to be accurate and objective. While I have been a reluctant observer at coursing meetings, attending on behalf of the Irish Council Against Blood Sports, and while I found what I witnessed to be obscene, I want to avoid encouraging other Members to accuse me of exaggerating or being pejudiced. I simply wish to state that what I saw strengthened my resolve to do something about coursing. Rather than detail my own observations I intend to quote from published accounts by two reputable journalists who attended the national coursing meeting in Clonmel in 1992. The first account contains direct quotes from an article by Dick Hogan in The Irish Times of 12 February 1992. It states:
The hare is a quiet, shy little animal, that feels pain as acutely as any human being would. How do I know this? I know it because I have heard the demented screams of hares who failed to make it to the protective barrier at various coursing meetings and who wound up instead in the jaws of competing greyhounds.
Earlier, they had been competing in the chase for the hare — that's coursing. Now, they were competing to tear the live animal apart, and that is something else again, something on which the coursing authorities are not inclined to dwell.
When the dogs catch the hare in this fashion they become frenzied monsters, and only blood and torn flesh satisfy their gaping jaws. To avoid this, the handlers must try to get in early to deliver the coup de grace, a chop to the back of the hare's neck.
Usually, though, before this happens, the diminutive animal has experienced such awful, terrorising pain that, in its death throes, it emits a piercing, agonised scream.
Coursing is a cruel sport, if it is a sport at all, and that, nobody can deny.
It is so cruel at times, that nowadays the officials who administer it do their level best to ensure that neither the public nor the press will get action pictures of the kill. They would be embarrassed by such photographs because the sight of the helpless hare in the jaws of two big dogs is not a pretty one.
Rather, to most people, it is disgusting and offensive to Christian values. Which is why it would be nice to hear those clergymen who support coursing so enthusiastically explain their position.
Maybe that is something we should all do. Mine is that shooting a pheasant, or a hare for that matter, for food, or taking a trout from the river, or eating meat, if that is what you fancy, is perfectly all right, and I would do any of these things without apologising. Neither would I enter into an argument about it because I do not feel I have anything to defend.
Those who run ferocious dogs after small, inoffensive and terrified animals, like hares, do, however, because that in effect, is torturing creatures who are being used as live bait.
Those who remain unconvinced should go to one of the two February meetings to see for themselves.
More specifically, to listen for themselves. Having once heard a hare dying all doubts would be dispelled.
The second account contains direct quotes from an article by Tom Humphries in The Irish Times of 8 February 1992. It states:
Ostensibly the contest is between dog and dog. For many, including the animals, the contest is between hare and dogs and, as such, seems grotesquely unbalanced. Greyhounds travel considerably faster than hares and in enclosed coursing are presented with all the advantages, an open field, a long run, a hare that has been in captivity for three weeks and has been trained to run in a straight line.
Eventually, in the course of an evasive manoeuvre from one dog, the hare veers almost straight into the jaws of the other. The dog drives its head down and flips the hare in the air. The crowd fall silent. On the TV monitor the commentator announces that "the hare has been spotted" and the camera flashes away.
Two dogs fight over their spoil, each tugging away. Attendants run in from the wings to separate them. Carried on the wind over the silence, is the appalling agonised bleating of the hare, as the dogs struggle for possession.
The dogs are difficult to separate from their prey and the scene drags on for several slow seconds after the human intervention. One dog jogs away with a leg in his mouth. An attendant is left with another leg. The rest of the squealing hare is prised from the other dog and another blue anoracked man breaks its neck with a decisive silence-inducing jerk of the arm. The public address system announces a deadpan: "And the winner of that course was...".
Coursing people are a breed under siege. Faces turn to you with wearied recognition, sizing you up with simmering hostility.
A small primaeval, shameful quarter of the mind even demanded the spectacle, while the rest objected.
What truly shocked, though, was seeing the sport in its essence. Breaking down the components makes coursing hard to justify, intellectually, and morally.
Capturing hares and keeping them for a number of weeks, training them to run in a straight line and then exposing them to greyhounds whose objective is to kill is an odd sort of pastime. One animal is trained to run straight, while the stronger, faster animals are trained to catch it.... The world is full of obscenities.
Sports, though, should be free of such bloodstains. Sport should enhance humanity not degrade it.
I have quoted from what I consider to be works of exceptional journalistic merit, but perhaps I should quote briefly the Editor of The Irish Times, Mr. Conor Brady, who in a letter to an anti-bloodsports lobbyist on 8 February, 1993 stated:
The Irish Times is opposed to live hare coursing and has repeatedly said so in its editorial columns. As a matter of routine we cover some meetings each year photographically in order to remind readers of the reality of what we regard — and have described repeatedly — as a cruel and unjustified activity.
Regarding my attendance at coursing meetings, as an observer, I did not attend high profile premier events like Clonmel and Clounanna. Instead, I went to isolated local events such as Ballymore, County Westmeath, in November 1991. What I and another observer saw there provoked a letter to the press from which I will quote a short extract. The letter was in The Irish Times on November 29 1991. It said:
During the first half of the event a hare turned towards us and tried to escape between the cars, but two young boys, no more than 14 years old, shouted and shooed the poor desperate hare back into the jaws of the dogs. Both dogs caught the hare simultaneously and tugged wildly at the screaming victim, then one of the dogs succeeded in catching the prize by the neck and ran with it into the field, with the hare desperately working its back legs to get free. The dog was caught by an "official" who took the still struggling hare and finished it off with two blows to the head.
I was very shocked at the reaction of the two children. I had thought that they would stay silent or would step back and encourage the hare to escape. Sadly that was not the case. Exposing children to such cruelty and conditioning them to accept it as normal is very damaging. The Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in a joint leaflet with the Irish Council Against Bloodsports recently pointed out:
When young people are allowed to witness such violence towards animals, it is a signal that such violence is acceptable, indeed desirable, since the Irish Coursing Club insists that coursing is actually of benefit to the environment (though they never explain exactly how). Any exposure to violence in any form is likely to raise the tolerance threshold of those who witness it, making acceptance of further violence easier. The cruelty of coursing is institutionalised legal violence, endorsed by the Government. It is no longer acceptable to the overwhelming majority of ordinary, decent people. Unfortunately, coursing has a considerable following among politicians and the clergy. We are particularly concerned that the clergy is so intimately involved, since young people look to them for moral guidance, and the clear message will be that the abuse of animals for fun is okay.
A few years ago an American psychiatrist, Dr. Boris Levinson found a strong connection between children's violence to animals and their subsequent violence to people.
"Once the barriers that stop you hurting another creature have been broken down" says Ms. Christine Donaghy of Children at Risk in Ireland, "it's only a short step to killing. And the difference between harming a small child, and going the extra bit that stops the child breathing and kills it, is very slight". "You can't really blame it all on videos or television" says psychologist, Ms. Geraldine McLoughlin, "It's all about power and control, whether they are torturing animals or other children, a common factor is a complete lack of empathy with the victim."
If we as a society were to promote care and affection for animals and an abhorrence of any form of cruelty we would all be the better for it. That is why I have moved the Second Stage of this Bill.
What I have referred to so far is in the context of live hare coursing being organised in accordance with the rules and standards as set down by law. Coursing is callous, cruel and indefensible even when the regulations are applied in full, but in recent years, scandal after scandal has disgraced even its most public events. In 1990 half of the greyhounds tested at the showpiece fixtures of Clonmel and Clounanna were positive for prohibited substances. Put simply, they were doped. The drugs were administered either orally or through injections.
Coursing clubs have been monitored and prosecuted for taking hares from the wild, outside the open season, without the required licences. Coursing clubs and events have used small, weak and even sick hares, in breach of licence conditions. At least one such club, the Moate-Tubber Club was banned from coursing for three years as a result. At the 1992 premier event in Clonmel, 37, hares died — 20 per cent of those coursed — and a post mortem investigation established that they were extremely ill suffering from coccidiosis and worm infestation.
At Clounanna, the same year, a higher percentage, 25 per cent of hares died. The ICC by way of explanation to the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Deputy Walsh, stated that this was due to "adverse weather conditions". Anyone with even the slightest interest in animals or in coursing knows what happened at Clounanna the following year. Fortyeight hares died. Some reports say 51 died.
The Minister for Agriculture and Food, Deputy Walsh, stated in the Dáil that "this situation is quite unacceptable". His Department ordered a major investigation. A report on events at Clounanna in 1993 is now with the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Even the ICC was forced to state publicly that the standard of coursing there was totally unacceptable to the ICC and to supporters of coursing. This happened at coursing's showpiece, their high profile National Irish Cup meeting. If standards are so unacceptable at national events under the full glare of publicity, what goes on at local events? Indeed, what happens behind the scenes, outside of the publicly organised events? What happens is called "blooding".
The Cork Examiner on 11 September 1992 reported the following under the head-line: “Two found guilty of blooding a greyhound by using a live hare”:
Two men were convicted in Tipperary yesterday of blooding a greyhound by means of a live hare.
Joe O'Reilly, Rathmooley, Killenaule, and Willie Denn, Clonagoose, Mullinahone, both pleaded guilty at Killenaule Court to having in their possession a protected wild animal, a hare, on September 9, 1991, at Mountaylor.
However, they pleaded not guilty to injuring the animal.
Padraig Comerford, wild life ranger, said he went to the lands of Matt O'Donnell on September 9, following reports of greyhounds being blooded by live hares. He saw Willie Denn carry a box containing a live hare the length of the track. Joe O'Reilly put a greyhound into a trap release box.
Witness realised what was going to happen and ran towards Mr. Denn to try to rescue the hare. Mr. Denn was holding a live hare on a string. The greyhound, which had been released by Mr. O'Reilly, got to the hare before witness could. He heard the hare screech as the greyhound caught it.
Both defendants were employed by Matt O'Donnell at the time. The ranger claimed Matt O'Donnell abused him when he went to his house about the matter... Judge William Harnett convicted both men.
Lest the House think this was an isolated incident I might quote again from The Cork Examiner of 23 February 1989 under the heading “Men Fined after Appalling Act of Savagery on Rabbit”.
What was described as an appalling act of savagery, involving the "blooding" of two greyhounds in County Kerry on October 31 last, was outlined by Garda Inspector Michael O'Neill, at Tralee District Court yesterday. He told Justice Humphrey P. Kelleher how a rabbit was savaged by the greyhounds which had been taken to a field on the Tralee-Ardfert road by two men. The men, Christy Conway... and Michael O'Shea,... were each fined £20 when they pleaded guilty of permitting unnecessary suffering to the rabbit at Bawnboy on the occasion.
Inspector O'Neill, prosecuting, said that when they reached the field, O'Shea released the rabbit from a bag. One of the dogs pursued the rabbit and caught it. Both dogs then savaged the animal.
A local man saw what happened and informed the gardaí who found the two men a short time afterwards. Gardaí also saw the rabbit carcass and the head had been severed from the body. "This practice is known as blooding greyhounds — it was a most appalling act of savagery on a defenceless rabbit", stated the Inspector.
Mr. Donal O'Neill, solicitor, said that the defendants did not realise at the time that they were breaking the law. A very instructive observation, I must admit. The article continues: However, they co-operated fully with the gardaí and now realised that what they did was wrong.
Mr. O'Neill said both dogs were only ten months old. It was a pity, he went on, that the story, which was not quite accurate, was described in such a way.
Presumably the Garda inspector was not being accurate.
He added that the publicity would not do certain parties and sports organisations any good.
Incidentally, Matt O'Donnell, referred to in my first quotation is a very successful greyhound owner in Tipperary. When I discussed this case with a leading coursing enthusiast, a Member of the Oireachtas, he told me that such practice is widespread among the coursing community. I will not name that Member because it was a private conversation but it merely confirmed the worst fears of all of us who care about animals.
There is one additional point I might make regarding rules and standards. The view is promoted that hares are released back to the wild after each meeting and, therefore, are not re-coursed. However, the evidence, if anything, shows the opposite to be the case. For example, condition No. 7 of the licence for trapping hares states that "the hare may not be coursed more than once on the same day". Rule 86 of the Irish Coursing Club states: "It shall be an offence for a club to course a hare more than once on any day of coursing or trials". Therefore, the House will see it is not even illegal to recourse the same hares as long as it is not done on the same day. That is what our laws permit. In addition, most coursing meetings are not attended by officers of the Wildlife Service so that they do not witness the release of hares. Is it any wonder there is international revulsion at what is seen to be a backward, uncivilised and primeval practice?
Throughout Europe and the United States the name of the Irish greyhound industry is being severely damaged on account of its association with coursing which is illegal in most countries. In fact, the only countries who practice enclosed live hare coursing worldwide are Ireland, Portugal and Pakistan. In Australia, for example, live coursing is punishable by heavy fines and imprisonment whereas in Canada only drag coursing is permitted. In the United States greyhounds trained on live animals are liable to be barred from racing. A tough new law introduced in the State of Wisconsin means that no greyhound raised in Ireland will be eligible to compete there. Therefore, it seems likely that this will become the general approach throughout the United States. Animal welfare organisations and animal rights groups in Europe, Canada and the United States are advising all their members to organise a tourism boycott of Ireland. I have received hundreds of letters from branches throughout the United States confirming this; although I do not approve of it, it is a fact that that is happening. In addition, President Robinson last year received over 2,000 such letters.
As awareness of Ireland's association with cruelty to animals spreads, particularly in the United States and Canada, its negative impact on tourism will be significant. Yet, parodoxically in Ireland, opinion polls have shown that an overwhelming majority of our people are opposed to live coursing. For example, a 1987 IMS poll showed 79.4 per cent against; 11.5 per cent for and 9.9 per cent "do not knows". The ISPCA is one of the organisations supporting the campaign to outlaw live coursing here. They say, and I quote:
We are campaigning against coursing because it involves the killing of animals for fun. There is absolutely no justification for trapping hares, or any other animal, and using them to provide entertainment for a small minority who, for some unfathomable reason, enjoy seeing them being chased by dogs and fighting for their lives. It is a one-sided fight which many of the hares lose, to suffer a violent and cruel death. This is the nature of coursing.
The chief inspector of the Ulster SPCA, Mr. Norman Henry, stated, and I quote again:
It is a mediaeval sport, shameful and barbaric, and has no place in this century. It is sheer, unmitigated cruelty. There is nothing as heart-rending as listening to the cries of a hare being pulled apart by two greyhounds. This is on a par with dog fighting and the sooner it is made illegal the better.
In the last few weeks I have received dozens of cards and letters from all over Ireland supporting my attempt to change the law, the vast majority from people living in rural areas where coursing is strong.
I want to avail of this opportunity to pay tribute to the various groups, organisations and individuals who have been fighting a sometimes lonely and seemingly hopeless battle over many years to promote public awareness of and organised popular opposition to coursing. I might mention especially the Irish Council Against Blood Sports who have been a great source of inspiration and encouragement. I thank them for their untiring efforts in defence of the animal world.
I know that this House is deeply divided on the issue of coursing. However, almost everybody is in agreement that the greyhound industry is an important traditional one which has experienced great difficulty in recent years. It is my strong view that, if the cruelty and blood lust is taken out of the industry, as has been done in so many countries worldwide, the result will be that our greyhound industry will be enhanced and, perhaps more importantly, its world reputation will undoubtedly receive the major boost it so badly needs.
There is an interesting parallel in the State of Victoria in Australia where live hare coursing had been regarded as a traditional sport for more than 100 years. However, they grew up in 1965 when they introduced drag coursing — that is the use of mechanical lures — which has gone from strength to strength so that live hare coursing no longer takes place there. Drag coursing there varies in type from track to track. Most are of a type connected to a wire cable drawn down the centre of the track and returned at the end of each course in front of the slipper.
Perhaps the Minister might consider sending some of our coursing people to Australia — I am not suggesting he should leave them there—but simply to examine the changes a modern, civilised society has implemented successfully. The organisers of Austrialian drag coursing maintain that the system they use has great merits in preparing and sharpening up a greyhound for circle track racing. The experience there is but one example, worldwide, of the changes that could be introduced and implemented which would give a new and badly needed lease of life to our entire greyhound industry.
There has been some media speculation about the muzzling of greyhounds as a compromise move and today the Minister of State said he would eliminate "the kill" and eliminate the "suffering", presumably by muzzling the dogs. My position is that the use of live hares at coursing meetings is unacceptable. Hares are a protected species under the Irish Wildlife Act 1976. Capturing hares from the wild can in itself cause extreme cruelty. Only today I received a letter from a farming family in New Ross, County Wexford, which shows this to be the case. The letter states:
I am wondering if anyone has brought to the attention of the Members of the Dáil who will be voting on June 30th the awful plight of hares when they are being captured for coursing or used for training greyhounds. This happens regularly on our farm, we often find unfortunate hares which have been entangled in nets for some time, some have broken bones protruding, some of these wounds are festering. The only thing we can do with these animals is to have them humanely destroyed. We used to enjoy the company of between forty and sixty hares but now there are only three or four.
I feel that many people perhaps do not consider the number of hares killed and maimed before any of their fellows reach a coursing meeting. I hope these thoughts might help in the argument against hare coursing.
Another serious problem arises when the hares are penned in large numbers in enclosed and overcrowded conditions — disease can spread rapidly among them. This has been a feature of many recent coursing events where post mortems have shown the hares were ill and diseased.
Apart altogether from this, under section 1 (1) (a) of the Protection of Animals Act, 1911, it is an offence to "terrify" any animal. Will those who set muzzled greyhounds on hares be exempt from this offence? If there has to be such an exemption how can the Minister of State substantiate his claim today that he intends to eliminate "suffering" from coursing?
Hares suffer great fear when they are netted and kept in captivity as they are by nature wild, solitary animals. When trials, as they are known, are held to train the unfortunate hares for coursing meetings what guarantee would there be that the dogs would be muzzled? The answer is none and the Minister of State will not be able to offer any such guarantee.
Apart altogether from the terror involved, large muzzled dogs can cause injury to a timid little animal like the hare. What evidence have I got to prove this? The chief Executive of the Irish Coursing Club, Mr. Gerry Desmond, will probably regret that he was quoted in the Sunday Independent on 20 October 1991 in the “Quotes of the Week” column as saying:
There were, in fact, trials carried out by the Irish Coursing Club a number of years ago and it was found that the hares were being damaged by the muzzles. We felt that it led to suffering by the hares afterwards. When hares get injured they find it very difficult to recuperate from any form of injury.
If there is any exception which allows hares to be captured and taken from the wild it opens up the possibility of abuses like "blooding" and unauthorised coursing events being held without muzzling the dogs. As I said, muzzling would also terrorise the hares many of whom die of fright from the experience of coursing. The only acceptable civlised alternative is drag coursing where mechanical or scent impregnated lures are used.
I would like to thank the Members of all parties in this House who have joined with me in calling for a free vote on the issue. It would be a great day for democracy here if the main parties, particularly Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, consented to a free vote. The issue is not one of vital Government policy, national policy and, as far as I am aware, party policy. It is an issue on which there are mixed views and opinions some strongly held by individual members of all parties. It would be a sign of the maturity of Dáil Éireann if a free vote was granted. The British Parliament last year granted a free vote on the wider issue of all blood sports. It was truly an example of real democracy in action. There should be room for the same in Dáil Éireann. There is still an opportunity to show that maturity. The tragedy is that if there is no free vote then the desire of a majority of Members of Dáil Éireann for change will be perverted.
There is one reasonable alternative, that is, that on Second Stage at least the Bill should not be opposed. That would signify, in principle at least, that there is a need for change. On Committee Stage, the extent of the change required could be decided or an alternative Government Bill could be introduced. The Dáil is said to have "grown up" recently with regard to certain issues. It is time to grow up on this matter also. A society that permits and specifically enacts laws to promote cruelty and the torture and killing of animals is something we must leave behind us. It is no longer tolerable or justifiable as we move towards the end of the 20th century.
Perhaps the House would be interested to know how our neighbours in the British Parliament and the Northern Ireland Assembly have behaved on this issue. In 1976, the Labour Government in the United Kingdom gave parliamentary time to a Private Members' Bill for the abolition of hare coursing. The Bill received majorities of more than 100 on each of its Stages in the House of Commons but, unfortunately, the unelected blood sports lobby in the House of Lords managed to delay and defeat the measure. The minority Labour Government fell before it could invoke the Parliament Act to override the Lords' tactics. A recent poll of MPs has revealed that of MPs responding 85 per cent would support the abolition of hare coursing. The Labour and Liberal Democrats parties are both committed to outlaw coursing as well as other forms of hunting and killing with dogs and a growing number of Conservative MPs have joined in the campaign.
In October 1984, the British Government refused to ban hare coursing in the North despite the fact that the Northern Ireland Assembly twice appealed for an outright ban. In the two Assembly debates there was unanimous all-party support for a motion to make park hare coursing, that is, enclosed hare coursing, illegal. My references are the Belfast Newsletter of 11 October 1984 and the Down Recorder of 2 August 1984.
Last week the annual conference of the Methodist Church discussed the Bill before us. On 18 June they wrote to the Taoiseach as follows:
The Conference understands that a Private Members' Bill on the subject of enclosed hare coursing will shortly come before the Oireachtas. In the opinion of the Conference the practice of enclosed hare coursing clearly involves unnecessary suffering to defenceless animals, and it requests that members of your Party be allowed freedom of conscience in voting on this Bill.
I would like to quote the following from a letter written by a very special person in her 89th year on 4 March 1967:
In my letter to the press I invoked the names of my two brothers Padraic and Willie and I was absolutely correct in affirming that they would both have been totally opposed to the inhuman treatment meted out to the innocent little hares at the coursing matches. At all times during their lives they were kind to dumb animals and Padraic's writings gave many instances of his love for animals and birds. I am certain that were they alive today they would be foremost in condemning coursing for the sadistic spectacle it is.
That letter is signed, "Yours sincerely, Margaret M. Pearse, Senator".
I wish to conclude by quoting the following from the editorial in today's issue of The Irish Times:
But hare coursing is an issue which does not bear comparison with any other likely to arise in this State. To allow a free vote on it would not be to establish a precedent. Nor can anyone claim to be unaware of the facts of the case: they are brutally clear. The contest is supposed to be between dog and dog. In reality, it is between two dogs and a hare; and only the hare can lose, and the penalty for losing is to be torn limb from limb. To call this a sport is an insult to sport.
The editorial concluded:
Irish politics and politicians need not disgrace themselves again.
