22 Facts About Hare coursing

Hare coursing is the pursuit of hares with greyhounds and other sighthounds, which chase the hare by sight, not by scent.

Whether for sporting or hunting purposes, hare coursing was in Europe historically restricted to landowners and the nobility, who used sighthounds, the ownership of which was at certain historic times prohibited among the lower social classes.

From 1876 Hare coursing meets were held at Plumpton, East Sussex and this name was used for such events in Australia.

Oldest form of hare coursing simply involved two dogs chasing a hare, the winner being the dog that caught the hare; this could be for sport, food or pest control.

Informal Hare coursing has long been closely associated with pheasant hunting or poaching, lacking the landowner's permission, and is often seen as a problem by the local public, landowners and the police.

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Lure coursing is a sport for dogs based on hare coursing, but involving dogs chasing a mechanically operated lure.

Some critics of hare coursing suggest that coursers could test their dogs through lure coursing.

However, coursers believe that, while lure Hare coursing is good athletic exercise for their dogs, it does not approximate the testing vigour and sport of live Hare coursing.

The objective of legal formal coursing is to test and judge the athletic ability of the dogs rather than to kill the hare.

Legal, formal hare coursing has a number of variations in how it is undertaken.

Open Hare coursing takes place in the open field, and closed Hare coursing takes place in an enclosure with an escape route.

Open coursing is either run as walked-up coursing, where a line of people walk through the countryside to flush out a hare, or as driven coursing, where hares are driven by beaters towards the coursing field.

Whereas the UK form of coursing was run with dogs winning points for their running and turning of the hare, the Republic of Ireland form is run on the basis that the first dog to turn the hare wins.

Greyhounds were introduced in the Americas for sport and pleasure, they helped farmers control jackrabbits, and organised Hare coursing meets were taking place in the United States in the 19th century, by 1886 according to Gulf Coast Greyhounds.

In Spain, the hare coursing is open coursing, and the areas where the activity takes place includes the Medinrua area.

Hare coursing takes place in Russia but is illegal in most European countries and in Australia, where it had a long history from 1867 until it was banned in 1985 following a long decline in popularity.

In opposition, coursing has long enjoyed the fame of being known as "the noblest of field sports" precisely because the death of the hare is not the aim of the sport.

Coursing supporters deny that hare coursing is cruel and say that hares that are injured, pregnant or ill are not allowed to run.

The Irish Council Against Bloodsports, an organisation that campaigns against hare coursing has video evidence that shows this happening, even in enclosed coursing.

Practice of hare coursing has only recently, in historical terms, been debated in Parliament, although Parliament created an exemption in 1921 from the cruelty legislation, the Protection of Animals Act 1911, for animals released for coursing.

The private prosecution brought against the organisers of the March 2007 North Yorkshire event organised by a Field Trialling Club clarified in September 2009 that hare coursing is still an illegal activity under the Hunting Act 2004 even if the dogs used are muzzled.

In 2015, it was reported that hare coursing incidents had fallen by approximately 78 per cent across Suffolk since the re-launch of an operation against coursing in September 2013.