I have listened with interest to the debate. I hear exactly what is being said but I stand here as a person who has a great interest in the hare. The hare has been a part of our heritage since long back, as both speakers said. The hare was on the old threepence coin. It can be seen in many pictures in many places throughout the island of Ireland. As a person who farms and likes land, and loves all kinds of animals in the wild, what I have observed with the hare is illegal hunting by people who have no concern for its preservation and are using new devices. A debate like today’s is one-sided against people - the only ones out there besides conscientious people - and I take umbrage when farmers are mentioned as sowing grass seed which is affecting the hare population. That is totally untrue. The eating of grass does not affect the hare and I can be a witness to that; I have seen it. With my leisurely pursuits whenever I get the time I love to be in the countryside. We fail to mention the natural habitats which are there for the hare, such as bogs where hares really thrive. Many is the time I stood to watch the hare. It is a beautiful animal to see running. There is nothing I see with the hare more than the pleasure of a hare when it sees a dog when people are out walking. If the dog pursues it, any owner who is ever in the countryside will see it has a natural route out of its habitat and what it will do is take the animal pursuing it - it does not have to be a dog, it could be a fox – around the place and exhaust it. The hare goes out to its natural footpath and then it will stand up on its hind legs and look back, as if to say “I have you finished", and off it will go. The animal pursuing it could be lying flat on the ground exhausted. I have seen that numerous times. The Deputy is laughing but I would like to know how many times he has been in the rural parts of Ireland - his rural pursuits - watching this. If it was not for the people looking after the hares there would be far fewer of them because of the illegal netting going on. They illegally pursue with specially-bred dogs which have speed and follow hares, sometimes under the cover of darkness. I have seen it. I have witnessed it. These are not people who look after the hare, who go out and make sure when nobody else is interested that illegal hunting is not taking place and report it to the gardaí when they do see it. Only recently there was a big article in the paper stating that fines are only €250. What deterrent is that for anybody who is going out intentionally to kill a beautiful animal like a hare? I would like the people putting this Bill forward to look at this issue. There is a preserved bird called the buzzard. I personally have nothing against the buzzard. It is lovely. For people who might not know it, it spreads its wings and you can hear it calling. However, I have witnessed on at least ten occasions the buzzard dropping down and picking up a little leveret, which is a young, small hare. It is able to catch it with its eyesight. No-one else could. A person could be walking beside a leveret and it will not move but the buzzard is able to catch it. It will swoop to the ground. I have seen it, it is awful. It picks the little leveret up, goes up like a rocket, and drops it. When the leveret goes down it is either stunned or dead. This happens in a couple of seconds. The buzzard picks it up and it is gone. I do not want to see that but I have seen it a few times. I would like those involved - and they do great work, those who list birds and animals which cannot be hunted so they do not become extinct – to look at the buzzard. While we want to preserve it and I want to preserve it - I do not know enough about the buzzard - it is wreaking havoc in the countryside on the small, young hare. That is all I can say. I have no problem saying I acknowledge the work those clubs do in preserving and watching the hare. They are watching because they know they are looking at an animal that is in this country for as long as we have existed. There are fewer of them, but why? I would like an answer. We can see that less than 1% is due to what is happening in the debate being presented here today. I ask somebody to please look into the overall picture and find out the real reason our hare population is going down. I acknowledge that is happening and I support all the studies which go into it. We find ourselves seeing fewer and fewer of the curlew, corncrake, and all of the other birds which at one time we saw frequently. We come along and ask if it is because we are building houses in rural areas. I saw a debate one night about that. It has nothing to do with that. We need to go back and see what the root problem is when animals like that go extinct. If we are going to have a debate we should not have one where the issue is being blamed on one particular set of people who, in my opinion, are looking after the hare. We should look at the wider picture and then come back to a debate when there is proof.

Sentiment score: 0.06