Pamela Anderson Urges Irish Prime Minister: Cut the Cord on Hare Coursing

Following reports that hare coursing has been given the green light to resume after it was halted amid COVID-19 restrictions, long-time animal rights activist Pamela Anderson has sent an urgent letter to the Irish Taoiseach.

On PETA’s behalf, she’s urging Micheál Martin not to allow the grotesque blood sport to continue:

“The novel coronavirus has taught us the devastating consequences of messing with wildlife, and your government can heed that lesson by banning this so-called ‘sport’, in which gentle, sensitive hares – wild animals – are torn from their natural homes so that they can be chased by hounds for someone’s twisted idea of amusement.”

What Is Hare Coursing?

Hare coursing is a cruel, violent display in which hares and dogs are put through misery for human entertainment.

For the blood sport, hares are caught in the Irish countryside with nets and boxes, then tattooed, spray-painted, or microchipped so that they can be identified. Once they’ve been marked, they’re transported to a hare-coursing club for “training”.

When they’re not being trained to run in a straight line through a field, they’re kept crammed together in a netted enclosure. Eventually, it’ll be their turn to be coursed at a meet: each hare is pursued by a pair of dogs, who compete with each other to catch and possibly kill the terrified animal.

The fear and stress of being chased can cause heart failure and sudden death, and hares who are struck or caught may die later from their injuries. Even though the dogs must be muzzled, they’re still able to pin the hares to the ground, strike them, and toss them into the air, breaking their delicate bones, rupturing organs, and causing internal bleeding. And if the hares do make it to the end of the field and into an escape hatch, their ordeal doesn’t end there – they’re boxed up to be taken to the next event.

Hare coursing is still legal in Ireland. Seventy-eight coursing clubs operate in the country, and each meet takes place over two days, with 72 races per day, during which gamblers bet on which dog will be the first to catch the hare.

Every year, up to 6,000 hares are caught and made to compete and risk death on the coursing field. Hares start giving birth to their babies, called leverets, in February, and because the season runs from October to late February, nursing mothers may be captured for coursing, leaving entire litters to starve. As hares are caught indiscriminately, pregnant females may also be taken.

Dogs Forced to Compete

It’s not just the hares who suffer. The greyhounds and lurchers bred for coursing also endure a miserable life at the hands of humans who treat them like money-making machines rather than cherished family members. When they become injured or aren’t fast enough to “win”, many are simply abandoned or killed.