Hare-brained defence of 'sport'
THE defence of hare coursing by the chief executive of the Irish Coursing Club (ICC), DJ Histon, made me want to laugh (Letters, April 17) but then I remembered this is a serious subject. He seems to be implying that anti-coursing people somehow rigged the dying hare scene at the coursing meeting.
Internet forums on the greyhound industry abound with 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit?'- style conspiracy theories about the filming of the "sport" in Clonmel, all implying that coursing clubs absolutely love hares. The ICC seems more annoyed with the people who video-taped the unfortunate hare's plight than with the coursing clubs that routinely mistreat hares for five full months of each year in the name of entertainment.
Hares mauled or otherwise injured through being struck or tossed about by the greyhounds have to be put down.
And the ICC thinks of this as "prudent management of our hare population"!
Chris Morris
Loughboy, Co Kilkenny
Irish Independent
