Originally Posted by Jonathan  Your wrong Kayleigh . . . ALL travellers are above the law!
Travellers usually take part in 'best of three' hare coursing whereby a single dog is used to course the hare, whereas in competitive coursing, under Coursing Club rules (as per the Waterloo Cup), two dogs were run. Ironically, the former is, in my opinion, less cruel. Even in competitive coursing hares rarely got 'torn apart', but there was always a risk of it happening for the simple reason that two dogs were used. When one dog is used the lurcher/longdog/greyhound kills the hare relatively quickly, it isn't in the dog's interest not to as hares can kick like hell.
I was a member of the Coursing Club for some years and attended many Waterloo Cups. If I'm honest I stopped going because I realised the risk of a hare being torn apart was always there, though I personally never saw it happen. If one dog managed to catch the hare the other dog would sometimes get hold before the first dog had a chance to kill it. Generally, a steward would be close at hand to despatch the hare (they lined the coursing field on either side, around 30yds apart).
I'm not trying to defend coursing, though, personally, I don't find a dog killing a hare any more cruel than a fox killing one, and far less cruel than traditional hare drives - if hares need controlling (and they sometimes do). Also, there are absolutely sound reasons why a coursed hare population is fitter and healthier than one that is controlled by shooting, I can explain if anyone's interested . . . actually, reading that last paragraph back, maybe I am trying to defend coursing!
What I wouldn't try to defend is the gangs of coursers who are now placing huge bets on the outcome of best of three matches. To be honest, this has always gone on, even when coursing was legal. In fact coursing grounds throughout Britain were plagued by gangs poaching the area simply because there were so many hares! These guys are a far cry from the local poacher who used to take a hare or two with lurchers for the pot. I've tried to reason with them when I've caught them on local farms - I've even had my own lurchers in the back of the van! All to no avail. If you threaten to phone the police they threaten to burn down the farmer's barns. I've actually been told by a couple of farmers to just leave them to it as it's simply not worth the hassle. I've been threatened personally and they've threatened to take my dogs off me (I've seen travellers turf unwanted lurchers out of their vehicles on the M6 - why would anyone do that?).
I haven't hunted for some years now, though I was obsessed by hunting at one time. I don't even own a lurcher these days, my last one died at the age of seventeen a couple of years ago. Hope I've not offended anyone, I've just tried to be honest and give some background information.
One other point - most of what Alan K suggested is highly inaccurate, and I'm not sure, as a protestor, how he managed to reach some of the conclusions he did. Protestors at the Waterloo Cup were not there all day. They were marched from their coach (and it usually was only one coach) with a police escort, they stood at the end of the coursing field, several hundred yards away from the supporters, hurled abuse at us for twenty minutes, then got on their coach and went home. |