TRAPRISE - No Level-5 playing field for Coursing

The coursing community were left aghast with the news on Christmas Eve that all events were to be suspended.

Having originally been included on the list of exempted activities in the Statutory Instrument SI 560 of temporary Level 5 restrictions relating to Covid-19 under the Health Act, Minister Stephen Donnelly thrust a dagger through the sport in his SI 695 amendment.

The amendment read: “Regulation 12 of the Principal Regulations is amended - (a) in paragraph (2)(b), by the substitution of “horseracing or greyhound racing” for “horseracing, coursing or greyhound racing”.

That simple deletion of just one word has cast an already interrupted coursing season into complete jeopardy and was so underhandedly performed by the minister without any explanation to Coursing’s governing body, the ICC.

Despite being an entirely outdoor sport and unequivocally the safest of all with negligible requirement for human-to-human interaction, Coursing was the victim of an identical and “last ditch” victimisation when the country last went into Level 5 restrictions on October 21st.

At that time, it was the intervention of a senior principal officer at the National Parks & Wildlife Service and Green Party Minister of State for Heritage Malcolm Noonan who successfully sought to have coursing removed from exempted activities.

In the wake of this Christmas Eve decree, there remains no explanation for coursing’s omission on SI 695, but it does bear all the hallmarks of another vindictive torpedo from the afore mentioned.

Following the suspension of Coursing activity in October, the NPWS and Malcolm Noonan then persuaded Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien to force the release of hares from coursing club compounds. That move was met with much resistance from clubs with justified concerns over the welfare of hares being released back to the mercy of illegal hunters instead of remaining in safe sanctuary with their only active carers.

Despite intense criticism for that move from within the sport and from supporting TDs, the Green Party and NPWS remain unrelenting in their efforts to continually disrupt coursing at every turn with sadly, the Irish Hare set to suffer most as a consequence.

Even before the commencement of this season, NPWS had attempted to disrupt coursing over the rabbit disease RHDV2. Having persuaded former Minister Josepha Madigan to temporarily rescind the Hare Netting Licence in 2019 due to a perceived threat to hares from the virus, throughout the course of that season the ICC did all in its power to learn what they could of any possible threat. To that end, the coursing clubs of Ireland, in conjunction with the NPWS, swab tested over 700 hares during last season and thankfully all were negative for the disease.

Despite this resounding evidence however, NPWS again raised concerns over the disease when the licence was due for issue this year and in a very weak assessment of all the evidence, Minister Darragh O’Brien issued the same licence as the previous year, restricting 12 coursing clubs from running their meetings on the threat of a disease that had been proven to have no threat! This was interference on the part of NPWS beyond any reasonable argument and represents a gross display of victimisation against the ICC and the sport of Hare Coursing.

Extensively recognised, The Quercus Report produced by Queens College in Belfast confirms that hares are 18 times more populist in areas with coursing clubs than without and following the 2004 ban on hunting in the UK, hare populations there were decimated to the point that numbers are now bordering on that of an endangered species.

With Coursing in Ireland perennially releasing over 99.5% of hares caught back to the wild each season, while replenishing stocks in each club’s respective catchment, the continued interference of the Green Party and NPWS clearly does not have the best interest of hares at its core.

No ethnic group, indigenous people or native tribe would vote for any legislation that was guaranteed to reduce its population 18-fold. When campaigning against coursing, the Green Party, and other such coursing detractors, are literally campaigning to wipe out the Irish Hare!

There is little doubt that this latest underhand move against coursing has come from an all too familiar source with the Green tail wagging the government dog but there remains much for Minister Stephen Donnelly to answer having signed off on SI 695.

It is clearly established under the recently enacted 2019 Greyhound Act that any greyhound which is entered into the Greyhound Stud Book is a racing greyhound and is legislated for under the term “greyhound racing”. Therefore, there should not have been any distinction between Hare Coursing and Greyhound Racing, which continues under SI 695, in the latest restrictions. So, ahead of any explanation, the minister may well have broken statute law!

National Meeting under threat

Whatever explanation is forthcoming, the current season is unlikely to be completed if the suspension is not resolved in the coming days. With the National Meeting set for the weekend of February 21st, there is currently just 21 pups qualified of the required 64 for each of the Derby & Oaks. The prospect of an entire generation of coursing greyhounds losing their puppy season is unthinkable for the sport, especially when enforced so covertly.

Responding to the SI 695 amendment, CEO of the Irish Coursing Club, DJ Histon, issued the following: “On Christmas Eve, the Government decided not to include coursing as an exempted activity without any explanation as to why we are the only activity removed from SI 650 of 2020. There appears to be little appreciation of what resources and organising is involved in preparing for a coursing meeting.

“The ICC set out clearly the reasons why coursing should continue similar to other comparable activities in terms of Covid-19, but we are unaware of any objective proportionate reasons as to why other comparable activities are permitted and coursing is not.

“This is clearly disconcerting for clubs in the first instance and greyhound owners secondly, that have complied fully with all Covid-19 protocols after enduring limited opportunity to run their greyhounds since the commencement of the season. The ICC is self-funding, and it appears there is little appreciation of this fact and that we are not in a position to offer a care package similar to other State Bodies.

“Currently, we are left with the unanswered question as to why coursing was removed from the statutory instrument that is permitting other comparable activities. The much-anticipated St Stephens Day coursing meetings, possible in no small part to the herculean effort by club members, are now in abeyance, as are those due to commence over subsequent days. Coursing has been let down in a serious way and this is not to belittle the current rise in Covid-19, it is merely to highlight that the risks associated with the continuance of coursing are no greater than other comparable sports, more particular, when we only have nine weeks remaining until the end of the season.

“The Executive Committee is invoking all means possible to remedy the matter on your behalf.”