{"id":2154,"date":"2023-07-05T11:48:18","date_gmt":"2023-07-05T10:48:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/whitmore-calls-for-suspension-of-coursing-licences-over-concerns-for-pregnant-hares\/"},"modified":"2023-09-15T10:41:26","modified_gmt":"2023-09-15T09:41:26","slug":"whitmore-calls-for-suspension-of-coursing-licences-over-concerns-for-pregnant-hares","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/whitmore-calls-for-suspension-of-coursing-licences-over-concerns-for-pregnant-hares\/","title":{"rendered":"Whitmore calls for suspension of coursing licences over concerns for pregnant hares"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>From an animal welfare and biodiversity perspective, I am strongly opposed to hare coursing<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore has called on the Minister for Heritage not to issue any licences for the upcoming coursing season after raising concerns about the welfare of pregnant hares.<\/p>\n<p>Deputy Whitmore, who is the party\u2019s spokesperson on climate action and biodiversity, said:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the conditions of the licence issued to coursing clubs for the capture of hares is that any injured or pregnant hare must be immediately released back into the wild.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHowever, coursing clubs have no way of determining if hares are pregnant upon capture. As things stand, I do not believe that it is possible for coursing clubs to adhere to the licence conditions as they are written.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Irish Coursing Club\u2019s own guidelines state that any hare that is obviously pregnant shall be released back into the wild and not coursed. But the relevant licence condition does not say obviously pregnant \u2013 it just says pregnant. It is highly unlikely that clubs have the ability to ascertain early pregnancy and therefore would be at risk of operating outside the terms of the licence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have looked at the reports of several coursing clubs and can find no records of any captured hares being released on the basis that they are pregnant.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrom an animal welfare and biodiversity perspective, I am strongly opposed to hare coursing \u2013 an archaic and cruel activity that does not enjoy popular support. In fact, a Red C poll conducted a few years ago found that only nine per cent of Irish people agreed with it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn Ireland, the importance of hares is recognised in primary legislation by defining them as a protected species under the Wildlife Act 1976. Incredibly, in the same piece of legislation that is supposed to protect hares, the Minister for Heritage is permitted to issue licences for their capture for the purpose of live coursing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI recently introduced a Bill in the D\u00e1il that, if passed, would remove the ability of the Minister to issue these licences. In the meantime, he must immediately suspend the granting of licences for the 2023\/24 coursing season until there is a full examination of the issues I have raised regarding pregnant hares.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>July 5, 2023<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From an animal welfare and biodiversity perspective, I am strongly opposed to hare coursing Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore has called on the Minister for Heritage not to issue any licences for the upcoming coursing season after raising concerns about the welfare of pregnant hares. Deputy Whitmore, who is the party\u2019s spokesperson on climate action [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2037,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[268,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jennifer-whitmore","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Whitmore calls for suspension of coursing licences over concerns for pregnant hares - Social Democrats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/whitmore-calls-for-suspension-of-coursing-licences-over-concerns-for-pregnant-hares\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"ga_IE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Whitmore calls for suspension of coursing licences over concerns for pregnant hares - Social Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"From an animal welfare and biodiversity perspective, I am strongly opposed to hare coursing Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore has called on the Minister for Heritage not to issue any licences for the upcoming coursing season after raising concerns about the welfare of pregnant hares. Deputy Whitmore, who is the party\u2019s spokesperson on climate action [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/whitmore-calls-for-suspension-of-coursing-licences-over-concerns-for-pregnant-hares\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Social Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/socialdemocratsireland\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-07-05T10:48:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-09-15T09:41:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Jen-plinth-pic.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"681\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"394\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"ZOO Admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SocDems\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@SocDems\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"ZOO Admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/whitmore-calls-for-suspension-of-coursing-licences-over-concerns-for-pregnant-hares\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/whitmore-calls-for-suspension-of-coursing-licences-over-concerns-for-pregnant-hares\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"ZOO Admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/4aa25e1b0ecfe5e51a2ceab9a9006960\"},\"headline\":\"Whitmore calls for suspension of coursing licences over concerns for pregnant hares\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-07-05T10:48:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-09-15T09:41:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/whitmore-calls-for-suspension-of-coursing-licences-over-concerns-for-pregnant-hares\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":389,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/whitmore-calls-for-suspension-of-coursing-licences-over-concerns-for-pregnant-hares\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/09\\\/Jen-plinth-pic.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Jennifer Whitmore\",\"Press Release\"],\"inLanguage\":\"ga-IE\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/whitmore-calls-for-suspension-of-coursing-licences-over-concerns-for-pregnant-hares\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/whitmore-calls-for-suspension-of-coursing-licences-over-concerns-for-pregnant-hares\\\/\",\"name\":\"Whitmore calls for suspension of coursing licences over concerns for pregnant hares - Social Democrats\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/whitmore-calls-for-suspension-of-coursing-licences-over-concerns-for-pregnant-hares\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/whitmore-calls-for-suspension-of-coursing-licences-over-concerns-for-pregnant-hares\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/09\\\/Jen-plinth-pic.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-07-05T10:48:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-09-15T09:41:26+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/whitmore-calls-for-suspension-of-coursing-licences-over-concerns-for-pregnant-hares\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"ga-IE\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/whitmore-calls-for-suspension-of-coursing-licences-over-concerns-for-pregnant-hares\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"ga-IE\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/whitmore-calls-for-suspension-of-coursing-licences-over-concerns-for-pregnant-hares\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/09\\\/Jen-plinth-pic.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/09\\\/Jen-plinth-pic.jpg\",\"width\":681,\"height\":394,\"caption\":\"Jennifer Whitmore TD\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/whitmore-calls-for-suspension-of-coursing-licences-over-concerns-for-pregnant-hares\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Whitmore calls for suspension of coursing licences over concerns for pregnant hares\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/\",\"name\":\"Social Democrats\",\"description\":\"Change Ireland for the better\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"ga-IE\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Social Democrats\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"ga-IE\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/09\\\/SocDems-logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/09\\\/SocDems-logo.png\",\"width\":846,\"height\":358,\"caption\":\"The Social Democrats\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/socialdemocratsireland\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/SocDems\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/4aa25e1b0ecfe5e51a2ceab9a9006960\",\"name\":\"ZOO Admin\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\\\/ga\\\/author\\\/zoo-admin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Whitmore calls for suspension of coursing licences over concerns for pregnant hares - Social Democrats","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/whitmore-calls-for-suspension-of-coursing-licences-over-concerns-for-pregnant-hares\/","og_locale":"ga_IE","og_type":"article","og_title":"Whitmore calls for suspension of coursing licences over concerns for pregnant hares - Social Democrats","og_description":"From an animal welfare and biodiversity perspective, I am strongly opposed to hare coursing Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore has called on the Minister for Heritage not to issue any licences for the upcoming coursing season after raising concerns about the welfare of pregnant hares. Deputy Whitmore, who is the party\u2019s spokesperson on climate action [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/whitmore-calls-for-suspension-of-coursing-licences-over-concerns-for-pregnant-hares\/","og_site_name":"Social Democrats","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/socialdemocratsireland","article_published_time":"2023-07-05T10:48:18+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-09-15T09:41:26+00:00","og_image":[{"width":681,"height":394,"url":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Jen-plinth-pic.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"ZOO Admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@SocDems","twitter_site":"@SocDems","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"ZOO Admin","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/whitmore-calls-for-suspension-of-coursing-licences-over-concerns-for-pregnant-hares\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/whitmore-calls-for-suspension-of-coursing-licences-over-concerns-for-pregnant-hares\/"},"author":{"name":"ZOO Admin","@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#\/schema\/person\/4aa25e1b0ecfe5e51a2ceab9a9006960"},"headline":"Whitmore calls for suspension of coursing licences over concerns for pregnant hares","datePublished":"2023-07-05T10:48:18+00:00","dateModified":"2023-09-15T09:41:26+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/whitmore-calls-for-suspension-of-coursing-licences-over-concerns-for-pregnant-hares\/"},"wordCount":389,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/whitmore-calls-for-suspension-of-coursing-licences-over-concerns-for-pregnant-hares\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Jen-plinth-pic.jpg","articleSection":["Jennifer Whitmore","Press Release"],"inLanguage":"ga-IE"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/whitmore-calls-for-suspension-of-coursing-licences-over-concerns-for-pregnant-hares\/","url":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/whitmore-calls-for-suspension-of-coursing-licences-over-concerns-for-pregnant-hares\/","name":"Whitmore calls for suspension of coursing licences over concerns for pregnant hares - Social Democrats","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/whitmore-calls-for-suspension-of-coursing-licences-over-concerns-for-pregnant-hares\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/whitmore-calls-for-suspension-of-coursing-licences-over-concerns-for-pregnant-hares\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Jen-plinth-pic.jpg","datePublished":"2023-07-05T10:48:18+00:00","dateModified":"2023-09-15T09:41:26+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/whitmore-calls-for-suspension-of-coursing-licences-over-concerns-for-pregnant-hares\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"ga-IE","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/whitmore-calls-for-suspension-of-coursing-licences-over-concerns-for-pregnant-hares\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"ga-IE","@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/whitmore-calls-for-suspension-of-coursing-licences-over-concerns-for-pregnant-hares\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Jen-plinth-pic.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Jen-plinth-pic.jpg","width":681,"height":394,"caption":"Jennifer Whitmore TD"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/whitmore-calls-for-suspension-of-coursing-licences-over-concerns-for-pregnant-hares\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Whitmore calls for suspension of coursing licences over concerns for pregnant hares"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/","name":"Social Democrats","description":"Change Ireland for the better","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"ga-IE"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#organization","name":"The Social Democrats","url":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"ga-IE","@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/SocDems-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/SocDems-logo.png","width":846,"height":358,"caption":"The Social Democrats"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/socialdemocratsireland","https:\/\/x.com\/SocDems"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#\/schema\/person\/4aa25e1b0ecfe5e51a2ceab9a9006960","name":"ZOO Admin","url":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/author\/zoo-admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}