Cash rich illegal hunters use infrared cameras to kill hares in Limerick
A COURSING club member in County Limerick has lifted the lid on illegal hunters using infrared cameras to locate hares, boasting about their dogs’ kills on social media, betting large sums of money and intimidating farmers.
The Leader has reported on farmers being assaulted and threatened for years by people trespassing on their land but now it is getting even worse, he says.
The coursing club member, who didn’t wish to be named, said it’s on the increase because the perpetrators seem to have a lot more money. He stressed the difference between strictly regulated coursing and illegal hunters killing hares.
“These ‘hunters’ are using scopes with infrared cameras, costing between €2,000 and €4,000, to detect body heat. They are not walking fields now, they just point it into a field to find a hare hiding. They will go right up to the hare, get it out of cover, drop the dog straight away and record it for social media. If they have the dog on camera killing a hare quickly, then lurchers can sell for between €2,000 and €3,000 here or in the UK.
“They are also betting large sums of cash on which dog will kill the hare or which kills the most hares in a day. It’s been going on for years but money, technology and social media have changed it completely and it’s on the increase. They are then posting videos and photos on social media of the hares they have killed.
They throw the hares into a field and ditch before heading off,” said the coursing club member who has a deep insight into the situation on the ground in County Limerick. Photos and videos he sent to the Leader show men holding up dead hares and displaying them in a row.
Limerick IFA secretary Lousie Crowley spoke out before Christmas on how she no longer feels safe after trespassers threatened to damage her property, break her neck and became aggressive when asked to leave her Croom farm. The men had dogs with them.
Limerick ICMSA chairman John Bateman has also spoken of landowners being threatened with “one farmer being told to select a site on his own farm where he’d like to be buried”.
The coursing club member said it puts farmers between a rock and a hard place on whether to engage with trespassers.
“We all know farmers are being intimidated on a daily basis as the trespassers act like they own the place.
“It's downright thuggery. They have no regard for law or order and will record the farmers on their phones. They come onto farms between first light and the middle of the night - there is no pattern,” he said.
He is aware of hunters targeting areas after coursing clubs have released hares back into the wild.
“The anti-coursing people are entitled to their opinion but there isn’t enough being said about the illegal hunters. We are strictly regulated and the hares are released back to where they were caught after being fed, inoculated and vaccinated - 99% are put back. If you don't have coursing clubs you will not have hares in this country.
“As a coursing man it’s not about hunting or killing, it is about who has the fastest hound. These other individuals are into killing hares. Hares are a protected species and they are not getting the protection they deserve.
“More needs to be done by the relevant authorities to target these illegal hunters,” he concluded.