Anti-blood sport campaigners criticise finding that hares do not experience greater risk of death after coursing

Anti-blood sport campaigners have hit out at a new study which concludes hares do not experience a greater risk of death after they have been used in coursing meets.

The research was conducted by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) and involved GPS tagging of a group of hares that had been coursed and a control group of other hares not involved in coursing. Their movements were then tracked over a period of time – including by a helicopter – and the study concluded that “coursed and/or translocated hares did not suffer higher mortality than uncoursed and/or untranslocated control hares”.

The findings were welcomed by the Irish Coursing Club (ICC), whose chief executive, DJ Histon, said: “If the concerns of protesters are the welfare and conservation status of the Irish hare, then it should be recognised that the conservation work of clubs throughout the provinces has a positive effect on the Irish hares’ overall conservation status.”

However, Aideen Yourell, spokeswoman for the Irish Council Against Blood Sports, questioned the findings, particularly as many of the tracking collars were removed by the hares themselves. She also claimed it did not take into account the distress of hares in being taken into captivity in the first place.

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According to the study, 10 coursed hares were released at their original site of capture and 10 other coursed hares were released into unfamiliar territory, with 10 uncoursed hares also released at their site of capture and another 10 uncoursed hares released into a different area.

However, 10 of the hares removed their collars, half by slipping them over their heads and half by fraying at them until they gave way, usually within a month of release. Two hares died the evening of their release after being struck by cars.

According to the study – the first here to assess the survival, movements and behaviour of coursed hares after their release back into the wild: “Nineteen out of 40 hares [47.5 per cent] were either never located after release [seven out of 40 or 17.5 per cent], or, relocated but subsequent disappeared [12 out of 40 or 30 per cent] indicating collar failure or dispersal far enough off-site to be beyond detection during walked, driven and aerial surveys,” it said.

Researchers said the findings supported coursing licence conditions that all hares should be released back into the wild during daylight hours, to provide adequate time for them to settle in cover.

Ms Yourell said: “It would appear from the findings of this hare survival [after coursing] study that the 20 coursed hares fared worse than the uncoursed hares, with just one hare ‘relocated alive at 6.3 months [study end]’, while eight of the uncoursed hares were found alive at the end of the study, which included three hares that were recaptured for coursing.”

She said coursing should be outlawed, as in the UK, adding: “We have noted a decline in the number of hares caught for coursing over the last 10 years.”

But Mr Histon said the ICC’s 90 clubs were central to the protection of hares and added: “Coursing is a rural activity and is an annual event in the community supported by a cross section of Irish society.”

Up to 6,000 hares are captured from the wild each year under Government licence by long netting and, according to the new study, the survival rate is 98 per cent.