The Irish Council Against Bloodsports (ICABS) has renewed its call for a ban on live hare coursing.
In a submission to Heritage Minister James Browne, Nature Minister Christopher O’Sullivan and the National Parks and Wildlife Service, ICABS outlined that it is an offence under Section 69(6) of the Wildlife Act to contravene a condition attached to a licence or permission, granted by the Minister.
ICABS highlighted a litany of hare coursing licence breaches or suspected licences breaches which involved:
Failure to examine for injuries hares who had been caught and pinned to the ground by dogs.
A Hare Capture Return Form not including details about all captured hares.
The presence of pregnant hares in a coursing compound.
The under-reporting of the number of hares captured for use in the cruel bloodsport.
Failure of coursing club vets to record hare injuries.
Dead hares whose deaths were unexplained not submitted for post mortem.
Absence of tag numbers of hares killed by a vet.
Absence of a report which the coursers said they made to Gardaí about a “malicious break in” which resulted in the “escape” of 6 hares.
Failure by vets to provide “a signed report on the general health of the hares” who were later terrorised by dogs.
In addition, ICABS said reports from the 2024/2025 hare coursing season, published on the National Parks and Wildlife Service website, recorded incidents of hares being injured during coursing.
These include a hare with a broken leg, a toe injury and eye sore, a lame hare who “struggled to run off”, a hare who “collapsed as it was running”, a hare who died on release and “hares found dead on the morning of the day after coursing”. Some of the hares caught and mauled into the ground by dogs were “euthanised as a result of injuries”.
Annual Application
The Irish Coursing Club will soon be submitting its annual hare coursing licence application for the 2025/2006 hare coursing season.
ICABS has called on Minister Browne to reject this application and to act on the reports of licence condition breaches, prosecute the clubs in question and refuse this annual hare abuse licence.
In 2024, the hare coursing licence covered the period, 9 August 2024 to the on 28 February 2025. This licence may be revoked or amended by the Minister.
Reference Box:
The control of live hare coursing, including the operation of individual coursing meetings and managing the use of hares for that activity, is carried out under the Greyhound Industry Act 1958 which is the responsibility of the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
Hare coursing is administered by the Irish Coursing Club (ICC) which is a body set up under the Greyhound Industry Act 1958. Legal provisions for coursing enable the regulatory authorities to control coursing and reduce the attraction of illegal, unregulated coursing activity. It is important to note that all greyhounds are muzzled during these coursing events.
Source: Hare Coursing (2025) npws.ie/licencesandconsents/hare-coursing. Online. Available at: https://www.npws.ie/ (accessed: 20 June 2025).
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