Animal Health and Welfare (Ban on Hare Coursing) Bill 2020: Second Stage [Private Members]
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-02
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Jennifer Whitmore (SD), Wicklow

Some 77% of Irish people favour a ban on hare coursing. The reason they want to see a ban on hare coursing is, simply put, that it is cruel. It is completely unnatural to pull a wild animal from their environment, to cage it for weeks and put it out in front of a greyhound and essentially let it run for its life. To do that and to call it a sport is probably one of the things that I have most difficulty with. We need to have a conversation about it. I have been listening to the debate. We need to have a conversation about natural, ecological processes in this House versus human intervention and using wild animals and being cruel to them for entertainment. The reason we have buzzards hunting hares is because they are meant to. They are part of the system. They are part of the food web. The buzzard plays an equally important role in that food web as the hare plays. We do not want, if at all possible, to interrupt that process. What is not part of the natural ecological process is for humans to go out and pluck these hares, which are solitary beings, and to cage them with a number of other hares in a completely unnatural environment and then to stress them by getting them chased by dogs and have them fear for their lives.
Earlier on it sounded like Government TDs were saying that the hare actually enjoys this; this is what they were built for; they love it; they really enjoy going out onto the course and trying to avoid the dog. That is just a ridiculous concept. Of course they do not enjoy being chased and fearing that they are going to be eaten. In this House we need to really start thinking about what should happen naturally and what should not happen; what we accept as a country and what we are going to stand up and say we do not accept. We do not accept a situation where, for the entertainment of a very small minority of the population, we are going to allow this cruel activity to happen. It is unnatural and it is unnecessary. The sport can continue if we put in an alternative, such as the lure. If people want the greyhound industry to keep operating and people to be able to go down and enjoy seeing greyhounds chase something, let it chase the lure. Why does it need to be a live animal? How can anyone possibly get pleasure or entertainment from that?
I had a quick look at the Facebook page of the Minister of State, Deputy Collins. I really appreciate that he was sharing posts about protecting our dogs in this heat and making sure they have enough water. Would he be happy if his family puppy or cat were being chased around by greyhounds so that other people could bet on them? These are living creatures. The Minister of State is laughing at me now.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-02/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:52:14+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-02