Both forms are cruel and indefensible.

“Its said that society can be judged by how it treats its animals/poor/elderly” who comes out with this crap.

mattoid, you can quote stuff to suite any cause

“The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.”
–Dostoyevsky

If we use this quote then given most people when commenting about knee jerk issues want to see many criminals hanged, murdered it doesn’t say much for these people.,

I don’t agree with this type of event at all, but people often say Rome was a great civilization, but then look at how it treated animals and prisoners. The quotes mean very little in the end.

@Stephen

Mahatma Gandhi came “out with this crap”.

Keep trolling.

@Barry

Thankfully standards in society have, for the most part, improved since Roman times.

Most of society eat animals that have been raised in terrible conditions without giving it a passing thought. So your quote is a bit silly really.

Like I said, we have failed on both counts.

Have you ever been to a coursing meeting? No. Its blatantly obvious that you haven’t a notion what you’re talking about.

The dogs are wearing muzzles so how can they rip the hare to pieces?

The dogs don’t wear muzzles when they’re being trained. Plus they can do a lot of damage with their muzzles on.
My biggest issue is what happens to the greyhound or lurcher when their career ends, how many ex-racing pointys do you see walking around as pets?
Its a barbaric ‘sport’ no matter what way you look at it.

James, you obviously haven’t a clue what you’re talking about.

Don’t know what the big fuss is here Caroline. After training we make Hare stew and feed it to the greyhounds. It also keeps them sharp. Eat what you Kill and all that and when the Greyhound is finished he goes to the candle factory. So all in all very environmentally friendly as well

Ian thanks for the comment I really couldn’t care what you think

Whaddaloadashite!!!

Ian,
As you (probably) well know, coursing meets are routinely monitored by National Parks and Wildlife Service observers, who record deaths and injuries to hares occurring at the meets.

The following is a summary of what was recorded in the 2011/2012 season:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2012/05/495952.html

It is absolute nonsense to suggest that hares don’t get killed during coursing.

Another knuckledragger who thinks everyone in rural areas supports this savagery.
Well, they don’t!

I never suggested they don’t get killed that happens it obviously part of the sport! go look up how many hares are released into coursing sanctuaries after each event and the amount of time spent by people during the year preserving these sanctuaries ! that article was incredibly bias towards anti coursing and as the saying goes paper doesn’t refuse ink! I was at a number of those meetings and I can say that them figures are inaccurate! I suggest you attend these events yourself and then comment on the issue! by the way I have never owned a coursing dog or joined a coursing club! I used to think this sport was very Cruel until I actually went and seen it! I’m no longer commenting on the matter with more than likely a clueless townie!

@ Ian . No way can you call this practice ‘sport’ . In sport both sides know the rules . How anyone can get pleasure about seeing defenceless animals being terrorised is beyond me . It’s totally barbaric !!!!

Describe a “coursing sanctuary” as you call it. Strange place I’d say, and I don’t imagine hares going on holiday there. Get real…this is savagery at its most primitive.

Clueless townie?
Make sweeping assumptions much?
Actually I live in a rural area, and I can tell you that plenty of country people think that coursing involves unnecessary cruelty.

Me Culchie too but me no Neanderthal!!

Oh but hares suffer horribly in coursing. See http://www.banbloodsports.com

Couldn’t agree more

This coming from someone who thinks Morgan Freeman is dead!

but its ok to get your Sunday dinner from an animal killed for you? ah wait let me guess you don’t enjoy the chicken you force it down right?? people need to worry about real issues in the world not fluffy little hares being chased by dogs.

I have, I was brought up with it. There are a lot of ill informed people making wild assumptions on something they clearly haven’t a clue what they’re talking about. These are the same people who will use products and drugs that are tested on animals held in captivity against their will, but we don’t hear them banging on about that now do we? I wish they would educate themselves before opening their mouths. They should put their energy into protesting against the suffering of people right here in their own country.

I was brought to a local annual coursing meet by my grandfather back in the sixties when I was ten. I was horrified by the treatment of the hares before, during and after the meet. There were many hares killed and re-run at that meet. It didn’t go ahead the following year because I took a crowbar belonging to my father and released the hares from the shed where they were kept three days before the meet. By the way they were kept in the dark in that shed for more than a week before the meet. I would do the same again today.
Animals are not put on earth to “serve” us in any way other than by their beauty.

That was 50 years ago. Also were you part of Famous Five? Your ‘story’ appears a bit far fetched

Not at all. Check the records for cancelled meets in Edenderry in the late 60s and the reason.By the way I’m not a tree hugger or the likes, just not a Neanderthal savage like some…

No time for wild goose chases

Unfortunate term..”wild goose chases”. I thought you’d enjoy that sort of thing…

I never referred to enjoying coursing. Part of my job to be there. I pointed out people should get there facts right about it before commenting nonsense. For example using an imaginary story from 50 years ago

Part of your job to be there…so you have a financial interest in coursing. You cannot give an unbiased opinion on it therefore. Q.E.D.

Similarly you cannot give an unbiased opinion as your experience is imaginary and didn’t occur

well said….

I’ve been to coursing meets, being brought there often when I was a child. I remember my grandfather putting his hand over my eyes when the hare was being ripped apart, but I could still hear the screams, and hares do scream when being savaged…you know that . I also did what I said. I don’t actually care whether you believe me or not.
Yes all this happened in the 1960s when life was simple.
I’d like to think that at least some of us have evolved since then.
I will continue to give my unbiased opinion on coursing, whether you like it or not.

I’ve researched it and I can assure you that hares are mauled, battered, tossed about like toys, apart from what happens hares that don’t measure up…

I just give my opinion too. However I think your opinion is built on a fabrication

I fabricated seeing hares killed and injured, or that I helped them, or are you possibly suggesting that all the photographic, video and other recorded evidence of the killing and injuring of hares is actually the fabrication upon which I’ve based my opinion?

Oh Neville, don’t be so judgemental.

Who are you to judge those who like coursing and fox hunting?

I refer you to Mattoid’s excellent link which completely punctures your arguments http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2012/05/495952.html
Hares are believed to be the first mammal species to arrive in Ireland. They did ok for tens of thousands of years without your “protection”, which, frankly, amounts to captivity in preparation for the next coursing event.
What’s the difference between coursing and greyhound racing? It’s not anything about ” turning the hair” or anything like that, it’s the primeval atmosphere of bloodlust that permeates coursing meetings.
It’s noting short of an abomination and ranks down there with badger baiting and cock fighting, ” sports” you might also enjoy.
To not participate in such barbarism does not preclude one from offering their opinions on the matter. I’ve given mine at length, to people that I would, if they engaged me in discussion, swiftly walk away from.
We are, unfortunately the only salient beings on the planet that kill for ” sport”.

Typos * hare, * nothing

All hares used in coursing are victims and they all suffer the fear and stress of being violently snatched from their habitats, thrown into crates, transported to coursing compounds and kept in captivity for months. Among the hare injuries and deaths recorded are:

A hare “squealing in distress” after being caught by a muzzled dog
A hare suffering with “a badly broken hind leg”
A hare “carrying a hind leg”
A hare with “a damaged hind toe”
A coursed hare with a “badly broken hind leg [which] seemed to be in great distress”
A hare in agony in a coursing enclosure with its leg “almost completely broken off”.
A hare destroyed by a vet after it was found suffering with a dislocated hip
A hare that died “from knocks sustained during coursing”
A hare released back into the wild with a “damaged leg” that “could be broken”
A hare found dead in a coursing compound after succumbing to pneumonia.
A vet treated three hares for “minor abrasions” and “witnessed three other hares that appeared to die after coursing without any outward signs of injury. One of these was sent to the local regional veterinary laboratory. Post-mortem findings included internal adhesions, suggestive of an old condition.”
Seven hares badly hit by greyhounds, with three dying as a result of the injuries.
An injured hare with “marks on its back and bare areas”.
Two hares found dead in a coursing club paddock. An autopsy showed that one died from well established pneumonia while the other died from so-called “natural causes”. Another died “during transportation from Loughrea to Westport.”
13 hares hit by dogs and 1 put down because of injuries and 3 died from injuries. Veterinary opinion was that they died “from knocks sustained during coursing the previous day.”

Until both of you have actually experienced coursing your arguments count for little as they are based on biased articles and hot air instead of actual experience…your accounts are exaggerated and have too many non truths to correct.

Nice try Aine, but all of these events are recorded by neutral NPWS rangers, not ‘tree huggers’ as claimed by other posters on this thread.
But I suppose you’ll say the rangers are all liars too?

Doh! Did you not read where I said that I was brought to coursing meets? Are you trying to say that things have changed?
If so, how have you managed not to terrify the hare?
Does battering rather than tearing the hare really count as change?
If there is such a thing as reincarnation may you return as a hare, temporarily transfixed as it’s released into daylight for the first time in days, with screaming animals,( coursing fans), lined up all along a field, forcing it to make a confused dash through the valley of death to be suddenly set upon by two dogs, slipped off the leash twenty yards behind,before the hare has time to recover it’s senses… You can then decide whether it’s a sport or not from your new perspective…
Oops, but then again you may just reincarnate as an inanimate object such as a stone, seeing as you show no signs of having a heart in this world.
Dress it up however you try, it’s barbaric cruelty, plain and simple.

Troll.

Stephen Church you are an ar*e-troll

“Somebody disagreed with me, they must be a troll” – logic

Ah yeah, gas craic for everyone…except the fox and the hare!

Tool..

Its ignoramuses like you that give Irish people a bad name.

There are no foxes used in coursing Ann-Marie, wrong sport

it’s not ok to course, but it’s ok to abuse the author of this post?

Stephen does that include all the animals who lived out their life’s generation after generation long before we came along ?
Who were they supposed to serve ?

If you eat meat then any argument you have is null and void. If you are a veggie, then by all means continue.

Stephen…most of the protesters are from city’s. particular Dublin..never saw a green field in there lives! don’t mind em! they are probably all vegetarians to! hunting with hector was fantastic…might wake some of those idiots up !

Don’t mind the keyboard warriors Stephen. Your right.