Galway TDs are being urged to back proposed legislation to ban the practice of hare coursing in Ireland.
Adrian Curran of the PBP Galway branch has said that Galway’s representatives should support the Animal Health and Welfare (Ban on Hare Coursing) 2020 Bill.
The bill was introduced by People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy in September of last year, and it is hoped will be back before the Dáil for its second stage debate in the coming months.
Adrian Curran said that Ireland is one of just three EU member states which has not banned coursing, which he said creates ideal conditions the spread of Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease (RHD2) by keeping hares in close confinement.
“Many of the over five thousand hares captured annually for coursing in Ireland are injured or killed, and footage of hares running for their lives and being violently tossed and thrown into the air by dogs ten times their size demonstrates the barbaric nature of this practice.”
Curran said that a poll conducted in 2019 showed that 77% of people in Ireland support a ban on hare coursing, including “majorities in both urban and rural Ireland”.
This is the third time an effort has has been made to introduce legislation banning hare coursing, after similar bill were defeated in 1993 and 2015.
““We are proud to support the National Animal Rights Association in their campaigning on this issue and urge Galway’s TDs to support this bill,” Adrian Curran said.
PBP are particularly calling on Sinn Féin and Labour to support this effort he said, after they voted against the 2015 bill, and for the Green Party, who were then in opposition, to maintain the support they showed then.
