DaveR101
05-03-2009, 11:58 AM
:thumbs_upBad Hare Days by John Fitzgerald is the memoir of an Irishman who took up an anti-bloodsports cause in his country. In his teens he witnessed an incident of cruelty while out walking in the countryside near his home.
From a concealed vantage point in the ruin of an old church he saw men gathered about in a field. They were cursing loudly and exchanging insults. He noticed the cause of the commotion: They had just captured a hare jack rabbit to Americans) and it was injured. One of the men grabbed the injured hare from the man holding it, and battered the animal against the wall of the old church.
Fitzgerald was shaken by what he saw. It was his introduction to the bloodsport of hare coursing, a recreation that involves capturing hares in the wild countryside of Ireland and then using them as bait in coursing events which consist of unleashing greyhounds after the hares in large wired enclosures. Many hares are mauled, killed , or severey injured in these contests.
The hare he had seen savaged beated to death in the field was treated thus because its injury rendered it worthless for coursing...as it couldn't run.
Fitzgerald joined an animal protection group and became actively involved in a campaign against hare coursing. He quickly discovered that he was up against powerful people. Some of Ireland's leading politicians were avid coursing fans, as were influential business people including top bankers and wealthy industrialists.
He describes in the book how opponents were subjected to every conceivable form of bullying and harrassment by their opponents...Many were sacked from their jobs for denouncing hare coursing, others were beaten or severely bullied up in the workplace.
The media frequently found it difficult to get photographs of the cruelty at coursing events as organisers routinely confiscated their cameras and ripped the film out.
Fitzgerald offers a fascinating insight into how the campaign impacted on himself, his family, and other campaigners...some activists suffered nervous breakdowns.
There's also plenty of humour in the book, as in the colourful descriptions of bizarre courtroom dramas in which campaigners are wrongly accused of damaging hare coursing venues and illegally releasing hares held for baiting.
The trial scenes are alternately gripping, moving, and hilarious in a darkly comic way, as is the author's detailed account of a clampdown on the campaign by police who happened to be members of the national hare coursing organsiation.
The author is a freelance journalist as well as a campaigner, and the writing style is journalistic, highly readable.:)
I think this book would interest people who've ever taken up a difficult cause, whatever the issue) and found their lives turned upside down as a consequence. It's a kind of cautionary tale in one sense, but it also makes a strong case for protecting animals from what the author calls "recreational cruelty".
From a concealed vantage point in the ruin of an old church he saw men gathered about in a field. They were cursing loudly and exchanging insults. He noticed the cause of the commotion: They had just captured a hare jack rabbit to Americans) and it was injured. One of the men grabbed the injured hare from the man holding it, and battered the animal against the wall of the old church.
Fitzgerald was shaken by what he saw. It was his introduction to the bloodsport of hare coursing, a recreation that involves capturing hares in the wild countryside of Ireland and then using them as bait in coursing events which consist of unleashing greyhounds after the hares in large wired enclosures. Many hares are mauled, killed , or severey injured in these contests.
The hare he had seen savaged beated to death in the field was treated thus because its injury rendered it worthless for coursing...as it couldn't run.
Fitzgerald joined an animal protection group and became actively involved in a campaign against hare coursing. He quickly discovered that he was up against powerful people. Some of Ireland's leading politicians were avid coursing fans, as were influential business people including top bankers and wealthy industrialists.
He describes in the book how opponents were subjected to every conceivable form of bullying and harrassment by their opponents...Many were sacked from their jobs for denouncing hare coursing, others were beaten or severely bullied up in the workplace.
The media frequently found it difficult to get photographs of the cruelty at coursing events as organisers routinely confiscated their cameras and ripped the film out.
Fitzgerald offers a fascinating insight into how the campaign impacted on himself, his family, and other campaigners...some activists suffered nervous breakdowns.
There's also plenty of humour in the book, as in the colourful descriptions of bizarre courtroom dramas in which campaigners are wrongly accused of damaging hare coursing venues and illegally releasing hares held for baiting.
The trial scenes are alternately gripping, moving, and hilarious in a darkly comic way, as is the author's detailed account of a clampdown on the campaign by police who happened to be members of the national hare coursing organsiation.
The author is a freelance journalist as well as a campaigner, and the writing style is journalistic, highly readable.:)
I think this book would interest people who've ever taken up a difficult cause, whatever the issue) and found their lives turned upside down as a consequence. It's a kind of cautionary tale in one sense, but it also makes a strong case for protecting animals from what the author calls "recreational cruelty".