Madam, – Dr Neil Reid and Prof Ian Montgomery from the Quercus ecological research group of Queen’s University Belfast undertook a survey on hare coursing in Ireland, which was published in the peer review journal Acta Theriologica. This survey used figures verified by the Department of the Environment to which the Irish Coursing Club (ICC) reports annually, along with independent video evidence and data collected directly by the authors themselves.
The average figure for the percentage of the hare population lost due to coursing since the introduction of the muzzle in 1993 was concluded to be less than one-twentieth of one per cent. The figure for the number of hares lost to coursing was based on the number of hares captured less the number of hares released after coursing. Therefore, where hares were released by anti-coursing “agitators” prior to coursing, this figure will have been distorted, as these hares too are classed as lost to coursing.
The report went on to say mean hare density was 18 times higher, and after controlling for variance in habitat remained three times higher, within ICC preserves than the wider countryside. The decimation of the hare population in Northern Ireland since the introduction of a ban on coursing in that jurisdiction in 2003 would further underline the Irish Coursing Club’s assertion that, without coursing clubs, the hare population would be far worse off.
Quercus concluded that the level of hare husbandry afforded the hare by coursing clubs actually enhances the continued survival prospects of the species.
Finally, I wish to express my disgust at a quote attributed to a prominent anti-coursing campaigner in your April 3rd edition, comparing coursing enthusiasts to paedophiles. While I accept everyone’s right to express their opinion, this remark goes beyond that and I consider it an attempt to incite hatred of the coursing community. I am most disappointed that your publication chose to print it, and that it continues to be carried on your website. – Yours, etc,