User talk:Rorybowman/FH

Hare coursing is a kind of coursing in which hares are pursued with sight hounds, usually greyhounds or mixed-breed hounds called lurchers. (Coursing is a more general term for hunting with sight hounds, almost exclusively greyhounds.) Like other sorts of hunting, hare coursing is often called a blood sport by animal welfare activists, and is practiced in a variety of ways: as a formal, organized sport and more informally.

Traditionally, hare coursing is the hunting of hares with dogs (when practiced formally, greyhounds; when conducted informally usually Lurchers which may have been bred specficially for the purpose). In formal hare coursing the objective is to turn the hare using greyhounds that are registered with a governed greyhound body. Today the term typically refers to a sport in which the primary purpose is to judge the athletic ability of the dogs rather than to kill the hare. Informal coursing is often conducted to kill (whether for betting or for food) and nearly always lacks the landowner's permission.

In recent decades, controversy has developed around hare coursing as some view it as a bloodsport, while others see it as a traditional activity that should not be legally restricted.

History

Coursing is the World's oldest sport and can date back to the time of Cúchulainn.Whether for sporting or hunting purposes, hare coursing was an activity that was historically restricted to the nobility, with greyhounds and various other pure bred dogs being used, the ownership of which was forbidden among those of the lower social classes. In order to legally indulge in the practice, the peasantry developed various cross breeds under the generic term 'lurcher'. The orginal sport simply involved two dogs chasing a hare, the winner being the dog that caught the hare.

Traditional Hunting

The majority of hunters and lurcher owners in bygone times were interested in working their dogs in pest control, for food, or for sport. Some peolple still carry out informal coursing which as everyone would agree gives coursing a bad name. In each case, the dogs often kill the quarry. This is the oldest form of hare coursing. Whilst some believe that high densities of hare are pests, they are the subject of a biodiversity plan to increase numbers nationally.

Sport

Coursing in Britain is open coursing, that is, it takes place in the open (as opposed to irish coursing which takes place in an enclosure with an escape route). There are two forms of open coursing. In driven coursing (such as the Waterloo Cup), hares are "driven" by beaters towards the cousing field. As they enter the field, a person known as a slipper releases two dogs at the same time, in pursuit of the hare, which is given a head start (known as 'fair law'), usually between 80 and 100 yards. In walked-up coursing, a line of people walk through the countryside and a pair of greyhounds are released after a hare is disturbed. Under National Coursing Club rules, the dogs are awarded points on how many times they can turn the hare, and how closely they follow the hare's 'course' (and not for the kill). Since the greyhounds are much bigger than the hare, and much less agile, following the hare's turns and jinks is very hard for them.

Figures for kills are hotly disputed. The National Coursing Club (in Great Britain) and the organisers of the event each say that, on average, one in eight hares coursed come to harm, (the figure is higher because this is open coursing), and that kills are very rare. On the other side of the argument, RSPCA Inspectors who attend the Waterloo Cup estimate that one in five hares coursed are killed at the event.

The contest between the greyhounds is judged from horseback.

Before the passage of the Hunting Act 2004, the most important event in the coursing calendar was the Waterloo Cup. This was the world's most famous coursing and greyhound event. The Legendary Irish dog "Master McGrath" won the cup three times in the mid 19th century.

Ban

The practice of hare coursing has long been controversial. Eric Heffer, MP for Liverpool Walton, was a major opponent of coursing and began his attempts to ban the practice in the late 1960s. Indeed, the House of Commons voted for laws to ban hare coursing in 1969 and in 1975; neither law passed the House of Lords to become law. In 2002, the Scottish Parliament passed the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act which banned hare coursing in Scotland. In 2004 the British parliament passed the Hunting Act, which banned hare coursing as well as other forms of hunting with hounds. The Act came into effect on February 18, 2005, and hare coursing supporters hoped that alleged loopholes in the law might have enabled the event to continue to be held. This proved not to be the case, and formal coursing events did not take place in England and Wales after February 18, 2005.

Coursing in Ireland and in Northern Ireland

There has been no legislation to ban hare coursing in Ireland, although there is a campaign to achieve this by the Irish Council Against Blood Sports. There are two formal coursing clubs in Northern Ireland, in Dungannon and Ballymena.

In Ireland the national meeting in Clonmel, Co.Tipperary and the Irish Cup at Limerick Racecourse, Greenmount, County Limerick are the most important events.

No formal coursing has taken place in Northern Ireland since 2002, as UK Ministers have refused the coursing clubs permission to net hares for coursing. At the present time, hares are also protected from coursing or hunting under a Special Order under the Game Preservation (NI) Act. The two Northern Ireland coursing clubs object to this ban, but travel to Ireland to hold meetings in conjunction with coursing clubs there.

Comparison to coursing in Britain

There are several differences between coursing in Great Britain under National Coursing Club rules and coursing in Ireland under Irish Coursing Club rules.

Firstly, the British form is open coursing which takes place in open land. The Irish form is run in a secure enclosure over a set distance.

Secondly, Irish Coursing Club rules state that its compulsory that the dogs are muzzled.

Thirdly hares are not always plentyful in some parts of Ireland due to modern agricultural practices, illegal hare killings and informal coursing while in other parts of Ireland hares are more than plentyful. In order to run a coursing meeting, 70 or so hares have to be found for coursing at a single event. Hares are generally caught by use of nets - this is done under the terms of a licence agreement between the Irish Coursing Club and the Irish Government. They are then transported in boxes to the coursing venue, kept in a big and secure enclosure safe from foxes etc. and well fed with oats, apples etc. and then the hares are trained to be coursed. Then, when the time of the meeting arrives, the hares know the runs (which gives them an advantage over the greyhounds) and are coursed. The hares run up the field and into the escape where the dogs can't get in. After the coursing the hares are transported back to where they were netted and will be released into the wild again. Generally, hares are only raced at one meeting per year and are let off in the area where the club hunts which means that other clubs are not obliged to catch them. However, reports by official Government wardens, published under freedom of information legislation, say that, occasionally, hares have been coursed more than once at the same event but very rarely at other events.

Fourthly, the Great British form is run on points while the Irish one is not. It is run on the basis of the first dog to turn the hare wins and this is denoted by either a red flag or a white flag (the collars of both dogs respectively).

Welfare arguments about coursing in Ireland

Organisations such as the Irish Council Against Bloodsports and the League Against Cruel Sports say that it is wrong to expose animals to the risk of injury or death for human entertainment. They point out that some hares are killed - some due to injuries caused by the muzzled dogs pounding the hares into the ground and some due to capture myopathy. For example, they cite reports of Government wildlife inspectors to say that 50 hares were killed in the 2001/02 coursing season. They also refer to the (British) National Coursing Club evidence to the Burns Inquiry which said that muzzled coursing can cause more suffering than unmuzzled if the coursing officials are not able to reach injured hares quickly, they point to occasional video evidence that shows this happening.

Coursing suporters deny that hare coursing is cruel. They say that very few hares die and that hares that are injured, pregnant or ill are not allowed to run and are seen by a vet. They say that, where hares die, this is because of an error of judgement by the slipper. In particular, they deny the claim that 50 hares were killed in 2001/02. They say that the National Coursing Club statement should not be given weight because it was given in the context that the National Coursing Club wanted to keep the traditional (unmuzzled) form of coursing. They say that traditional coursing has way more fatalities than muzzled coursing. Supporters say that, as the aim is not to kill or harm the hare, coursing should not be given so much publicity and should not be considered as a [blood sport]. They further say that the wildlife rangers who are present at the coursing events say that the hares are well fed, well looked after and the coursing is run well with very few casualties. They say that a lot of people unforunately don't know what coursing is which can easily make these people turn against it when they are told only only one side of the story.

The report (link below) from the official Countryside ranger at the Wexford Coursing Club meeting in December 2003 confirms that forty hares died at the event. The report of a veterinary surgeon who examined the hares blames the "significant stress" of being "corralled and coursed."

Another issue that alarms both 99.9% of coursers and animal welfare groups is the trading, buying and selling of hares, which is illegal. A small minority carry out these activities for there own good, for example, there was a conviction for this in 2002 after the Dungannon Coursing Club had only been able to find nine hares to course, though all people involved are not necessarily involved in coursing clubs. The trading in particular can ruin a meeting (i.e a sick hare being given to another club, which leads to the whole hare stock getting sick). Both Coursing Groups and animal welfare groups are totally against this and agree that prosecutions should take place when this happens.

Informal coursing and illegal hare killngs are also strongly opposed by both sets of supporters.

Public opinion (Northern Ireland)

There have not been any recent opinion surveys in the Irish Republic. However, the League Against Cruel Sports commissioned Millward Brown Ulster to do a survey of 1,000 Northern Ireland residents at the end of 2003. This found that at the claim that that 85% of rural people believed that hare coursing is cruel, that 73% believed it is immoral and that 70% wanted to see it brought to an end. Hare coursers say that the majority of respondents do not necessarily know what coursing is or indedd know the full story, having only seen one side of the story in the media, and not being told,without negative views toward it,what it is.

External link

Category:Hunting Category:Blood sports

Rhetoric

Bloody well right, Sport!

Trait Analysis

Trait analysis is an academic method which aims to objectively assess writing on specific, pre-defined traits. Traits are explicitly identified and multiple drafts are analyzed or evaluated for each trait separately, usually using an academic rubric and a numeric system. Trait analysis asserts that that all good writing contains all traits, whatever the subject matter or style. By focussing on discrete traits in isolation, the goal is to improve each trait and raise the overall quality of writing in a systematic way. Some of the early work on trait analysis was done in New Zealand, then expanded into "six trait writing analysis" by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory in the United States.

Different systems of trait analysis identify different traits, but the six traits identified by NWREL were

Ideas: The writing has something of substance to say.
Organization: Ideas, arguments or assertions are presented in an understandable way.
Flow: The piece seems to have a natural progression and rhythm.
Voice: The piece has consistent tone and personality; it sounds like a real person.
Word Choice: The vocabulary of the piece is appropriate to the subject matter.
Conventions: The piece observes standard rules of mechanics, spelling, grammar, punctuation, citation, etc

As originally developed, traits were arranged in a rubric for scoring by trained teachers and scores compared to assure consistency across a variety of scorers using the same rubric.