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RURAL ECONOMY

The statistics in this section are based on questionnaires sent to the 24 greyhound coursing clubs affiliated to the NCC and to a representative sample of 300 owners, trainers, and supporters. The expenditure on coursing falls into two distinct areas; expenditure by the coursing clubs themselves, and expenditure on the greyhounds running at their meetings.

A. Clubs

1. 16 Clubs running "static" coursing with beaters

Costs of an average day's coursing

PRINTING 121

POSTAGE 33

JUDGE 168

SLIPPER 168

HORSE 106

KEEPERS 140

BEATERS 850

PICKERS-UP 68

CATERING 50

PORTALOOS 60

RADIOS 63

TRACTORS & TRAILORS 136

TROPHIES 437

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TOTAL 2400

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Some Annual costs

STATIONERY/PRINTING 644

POSTAGE 217

AFFILIATIONS FEES 99

INSURANCE 115

SOCIAL EVENTS 1062

LANDOWNERS 352

GROUND IMPROVEMENTS 566

SECRETARY (if paid) 825

FLAGS 83

TELEPHONE 243

MEMBERSHIP BADGES 314

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4520

====

2. 5 Clubs running walked-up coursing

Cost of an average day's coursing

PRINTING 22

POSTAGE 15

JUDGE 60

SLIPPER 55

HORSE 60

KEEPERS 97

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309

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Some Annual costs

STATIONERY/PRINTING 75

POSTAGE 122

AFFILIATION FEES 50

INSURANCE 40

SOCIAL EVENTS 395

LANDOWNERS 725

TELEPHONE 115

The remaining clubs run a mixture of static and walked-up coursing, paying fewer beaters than in 1., and spending an average of c. £600 each day.

There are 14 judges and 17 slippers currently licensed by the National Coursing Club, which are employed by NCC clubs, and also by the Whippet, Saluki, and Deerhound Clubs.

B. Owners & Trainers

741 greyhounds ran at National Coursing Club meetings in the season 1998/99 for 361 owners, some of whom owned runners together in partnership. In addition to the actual runners, there are puppies being reared, stud dogs, brood bitches, and retired runners. There are 34 professional trainers licensed by the National Coursing Club, who train c. 30% of the greyhounds running.

1. The average annual basic cost of keeping each greyhound is as follows.

BEDDING 30

FEED & ADDITIVES 267

KENNEL EQUIPMENT 34

RUNNING EQUIPMENT 26

CARE EQUIPMENT 75

VETERINARY CHARGES 143

TRAINING EQUIPMENT 58

MAINTENANCE OF KENNELS & LAND 96

INSURANCE 27

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756

===

2. Other expenditure varied according to the varying types of owners. Some expenditure of three representative owners in each section is as follows.

Owner/trainers

Owner in North Yorkshire Council House training 3 dogs

SETTING UP KENNELS & LAND 850

ENTRY FEES 600

REGISTRATION FEES 46

COST OF A DOG (homebred or purchased)

1600

TRAVELLING EXPENSES 1085

SUBSCRIPTIONS TO CLUBS etc 120

MAGAZINES, NEWSPAPERS etc 250

PROTECTIVE CLOTHING 150

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4701

====

Owner in Kent renting kennels and training 4 dogs plus pups

SETTING UP KENNELS & LAND 7200

RENT 1300 per annum

ENTRY FEES 500

REGISTRATION FEES 80

COST OF A DOG (homebred or purchased)

1400

TRAVELLING EXPENSES 300

SUBSCRIPTIONS TO CLUBS etc 225

MAGAZINES, NEWSPAPERS etc 75

PROTECTIVE CLOTHING 150

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11230

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Owner in Cambridgeshire training 10 dogs on his own land

SETTING UP KENNELS & LAND 1500

ENTRY FEES 665

REGISTRATION FEES 54

COST OF A DOG (homebred or purchased)

1500

TRAVELLING EXPENSES N/A

SUBSCRIPTIONS TO CLUBS etc 350

MAGAZINES, NEWSPAPERS etc 47

PROTECTIVE CLOTHING 50

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4166

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Professional Trainers

Trainer in Peak District training 40 dogs on his own land

SETTING UP KENNELS & LAND 250000

(including house)

ENTRY FEES PAID BY OWNERS

REGISTRATION FEE PAID BY OWNERS

COST OF A DOG (homebred or purchased)

2000

TRAVELLING EXPENSES 1500

SUBSCRIPTIONS TO CLUBS etc 400

MAGAZINES, NEWSPAPERS etc 500

PROTECTIVE CLOTHING 500

ADDITIONAL LABOUR 18720

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273620

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Trainer in Bedfordshire training 23 dogs on his own land

SETTING UP KENNELS & LAND 300000

(including house)

ENTRY FEES 3450

REGISTRATION FEE 575

COST OF A DOG (homebred or purchased)

2500

TRAVELLING EXPENSES 1500

SUBSCRIPTIONS TO CLUBS etc 275

MAGAZINES, NEWSPAPERS etc N/A

PROTECTIVE CLOTHING 400

ADDITIONAL LABOUR NOT STATED

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308700

======

Trainer in Somerset training 18 dogs on his own land

SETTING UP KENNELS & LAND 11000

ENTRY FEES PAID BY OWNERS

REGISTRATION FEE PAID BY OWNERS

COST OF A DOG (homebred or purchased)

PAID BY OWNERS

TRAVELLING EXPENSES 500

SUBSCRIPTIONS TO CLUBS etc 140

MAGAZINES, NEWSPAPERS etc 68

PROTECTIVE CLOTHING 45

ADDITIONAL LABOUR 2000

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13753

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All trainers used vans to transport their dogs, but costings varied. Perhaps the most accurate indicator was the professional trainer who paid £500 per month for her leased van plus diesel and other running costs.

Owners with dogs trained by professional trainers

Monthly charges varied between £95 and £130 per month for each greyhound, with costs such as transport, expenses, and veterinary care in addition. Those who took these into account considered that they paid c.£180 per month for each greyhound. Owners also paid registration fees, entry fees, their own expenses, and the cost of the greyhound. The following costs are annual unless stated otherwise.

Pensioner from Harrogate with 2 runners

TRAINER'S ANNUAL FEES 3000

ENTRY FEES 450

REGISTRATIONS FEES 18

COST OF DOGS 1500

TRANSPORT 1000

ACCOMMODATION 2500

SUBSCRIPTIONS TO CLUBS etc 400

MAGAZINES, NEWSPAPERS etc 144

PROTECTIVE CLOTHING 800

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9812

=====

Norfolk builder with 4 runners

TRAINER'S ANNUAL FEES 5760

ENTRY FEES 985

REGISTRATIONS FEES 40

COST OF DOGS 2320

TRANSPORT 800

ACCOMMODATION 200

SUBSCRIPTIONS TO CLUBS etc 185

MAGAZINES, NEWSPAPERS etc

PROTECTIVE CLOTHING 30

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10320

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Kent farmer with 8 runners

TRAINER'S MONTHLY FEES EACH DOG 11904

ENTRY FEES 1000+

REGISTRATIONS FEES 250

COST OF DOGS 2000

TRANSPORT 1000

ACCOMMODATION 800

SUBSCRIPTIONS TO CLUBS etc 400

MAGAZINES, NEWSPAPERS etc 100

PROTECTIVE CLOTHING 100

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17554

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The expenses of supporters without greyhounds varied considerably. One gentleman who follows most of the major meetings spends £1400 a year on transport and £950 on his accomodation. A couple who attend their local meeting but also go to the Waterloo Cup spend £250 on transport and £300 on accomodation. Their expenditure on subscriptions, magazines, and clothing is much the same as supporters who actually own dogs.

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AGRICULTURE AND PEST CONTROL

1. The Game Conservancy has noted about brown hare numbers in this country, "Although it is right to be concerned about the present decline, it must be remembered that hares are still very common animals and indeed in some areas are still regarded as agricultural pests." Hares can create considerable crop damage. Research by the Game Conservancy and Bristol University put the national hare population at anything between 800,000 and 2,000,000, and the Game Conservancy considers that the population has now stabilised.

2. On estates and farms where competitive greyhound coursing takes place, the hare populations are carefully preserved. On other estates and farms, however, particularly those on which vegetables, salad stuffs, and young trees are grown, hare numbers are controlled, normally by shooting but also by the use of sighthounds; greyhounds, lurchers, etc. The advantage of the use of sighthounds over shooting is the guarantee that the hares are killed outright.

3. The prohibition of coursing would remove this humane method of controlling hare numbers. The only control option remaining would be shooting.

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SOCIAL AND CULTURAL LIFE OF THE COUNTRYSIDE

1. The world of competitive greyhound coursing is not a large one, and yet it draws together participants from all walks of life. The Swaffham Coursing Club in Norfolk, for instance, the oldest public coursing club in existence and founded in 1776, has a large local following as well as attracting supporters from all over the country. As well as some sixty running members, the coursing attracts daily crowds of up to five hundred people. The owners of the greyhounds in the finals at its major meeting last season illustrate this. In the Anglia Cup a Hampshire housewife met a Norfolk builder; in the Anglia Purse an Oxfordshire egg farmer met a Harrogate postman; and in the Anglia Plate a professional photographer, who lives in the Cambridgeshire fens, met a partnership which included a PR executive from London, an owner of a Yorkshire B&B, and a professional greyhound trainer from Sheffield Stadium. A meeting like the Anglia Cup would attract an aggregate crowd of a thousand people over three days. The climax of the club's season is the annual lunch at which its historic trophies, won during the past season, are presented with due honours. The Swaffham Club is typical. Although the coursing meetings themselves are the focal social activity, all clubs hold lunches, dinners, skittle matches, barbecues etc for members, farmers, keepers, beaters etc. Many coursing supporters have had a lifelong interest in the sport, and consider that abolition of the sport would destroy their way of life.

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MANAGEMENT AND CONSERVATION OF WILDLIFE

1. Hare numbers reached their high point in the last century. Victorian farming, with its emphasis on planned rotation of crops, provided ample and varied fodder for the hares. Hares were protected by law, and could only be killed by landowners, many of whom would have preserved large numbers for coursing meetings. Tenant farmers had complained of the resulting crop damage since the 1840's, and a severe agricultural depression helped to bring about the Ground Game Act of 1880 which gave the tenant control over the ground game on his land. A holocaust was the immediate result in which tenants in a grisly revenge on their masters slaughtered countless hares. Before the Act a hundred days coursing were run a year in Scotland; after its becoming law, only three clubs running a total of a dozen days survived.

2. Hare numbers remained high, however, on estates where they were protected by the landowners, often for sporting purposes like coursing. Game Conservancy research has shown that there was another steep decline in numbers between the end of the First World War and the 1960's. A key factor was the proportionate decline in the number of gamekeepers employed on estates. Hares suffer considerably from predation, particularly by foxes, and the decline in keepering was accompanied by a growth in predators. A similar trend linking predator increase and decline in hare numbers has been noted throughout Europe in the past thirty years.

3. The 1960's saw a brief rise in hare numbers, probably caused by the decrease in the rabbit population due to myxomatosis; (hares dislike sharing the countryside and its grass with rabbits.) This was only a temporary relief, before hare numbers fell again throughout the 1970's and 80's. Continual wet weather did not help in the 1970's; wet weather seems to make hares prone to sickness, and in a wet spring leverets can drown even in their forms.

4. Modern farming methods, however, were probably the key factor. Increasing monoculture on both arable and grassland, where "wall-to-wall" winter cereals or new grass leys took the place of mixed farming, denied the hare its traditional varied diet. A critical period was late summer. In the past the stubbles left after harvest had "greened up" with weed to provide the hares with fodder as well as affording protection. The new farming saw land cultivated immediately after harvest so that, until the new shoots of the winter cereals broke through, there was little or nothing for the hares to eat. Hares are particularly susceptible to liver disease, but this is only the symptom of the critical problem, malnutrition, which weakens them initially. Toxic sprays like gramoxone also took their toll.

5. European Brown Hare Syndrome (EBHS) probably has been around since the mid 1970's, and may have been brought to this country by hares imported live from the continent before the implementation of the "Hare: Control of Importation Order 1965". Hares suffering from the disease have been reported to lose all fear of men and dogs, to be lethargic, to circle, stagger, jump into the air, or have convulsions before death, and to show signs of conjunctivitis. Death occurs some three days after the onset of the clinical signs.

6. Despite these symptoms, the disease has nothing to do with the brain, and in fact the virus attacks the liver, although the lungs and other organs can be affected. The virus is infectious, and scientists have succeeded in reproducing the disease in healthy hares by inoculating them with a liver filtrate from EBHS cases. In 1982, the earliest incident from which dead hares were examined, on a North Yorkshire estate of 2,000 acres over a period of weeks approximately one hundred hares were picked up dead, thought to be 60% of the hare population. In 1989 the keeper on a 1000 acre estate in Suffolk disposed of 100 carcases in a two-week period, and the epidemic continued over eight to ten weeks. In North Hertfordshire, however, the disease killed hares on one side of a busy road, while on the other the hares remained healthy.

7. At one time "double low" varieties of oil seed rape, on which hares will pig themselves given the chance, were blamed for the deaths, but there is no evidence that this is a contributory factor. Nor did the hares examined show traces of toxic sprays.

8. Epidemics always seem to occur in September, October, and November. The scientists acknowledge that hares are most populous after the summer, particularly a hot, dry one in which the survival rate of leverets is high. This is also the time of the modern farming year when fodder for hares is in shortest supply because of the tendency to harvest early, and then cultivate and drill immediately afterwards. Hares are subsceptible to EBHS when they have been weakened by starvation whereas healthy hares can resist it. If farmers want hares to resist EBHS, they must leave some stubbles (greened up and unsprayed) as long as possible as well as providing permanent headlands and cover round the drilled fields. When the winter cereals are up, the hares then feed on those, but the weeks after harvest are critical. The scientists have noticed that the casualties were in poor condition with a mean body weight of 2.1 kgs, and "can exhibit anorexia;" i.e. they were starved.

9. Where hare numbers have declined for the reasons given above, there is now every chance of encouraging an increase through the application of the conclusions of the Game Conservancy's research. The key factors are the control of predators, especially foxes, and sympathetic farming, which provides the hare with fodder and shelter and makes use of friendly sprays. Organised coursing meetings on estates ensure the best conditions possible for a healthy hare stock.

10. An example of outstanding success in hare husbandry can be found on Lord Leverhulme's estate at Altcar, where coursing's Waterloo Cup has been run since 1836. After the death of the last Lord Sefton in 1973, uncertainty and neglect saw the traditionally high hare numbers on the Altcar estate fall so low that from 1978-80 the Waterloo Cup was not run. In the meantime the Waterloo Cup Committee, with the wholehearted cooperation of the new owner, Lord Leverhulme, his tenants, and keepers, introduced fresh stock from other areas such as East Anglia. This would have had no lasting effect if it had not been accompanied by expert and determined keepering. Also the farming has changed from almost exclusively spring cereals in 1980 to a mixture of winter and spring cereals interspersed with vegetables, root crops and the game crops of the expertly managed shoot. The stubbles left for the Altcar Club coursing in the autumn and the permanent grass meadows of the Waterloo Cup running grounds at the Withins and Lydiate also contribute vital fodder and shelter. Dr Stephen Tapper recorded that the density of hares on the estate increased by a staggering 38.8% between 1980 and 1988. Hares are so prolific at Altcar now that there are plans to move some to introduce breeding outcrosses elsewhere.

12. The League Against Cruel Sports has found itself in a moral dilemma when field sports undeniably guarantee game conservation. This is reflected in its muddled response. The League makes wild claims as to the numbers of hares killed in coursing and hare hunting, and yet admits in a circular to MPs that "we accept that the majority of hares coursed are not killed." The Game Conservancy's 1990 Hare Report showed that a coursing meeting temporarily reduces the hare population in the immediate area by an average of 5.1%, and beagling by an average of 2.1%. The Conservancy acknowledges that part of this figure is caused by hares temporarily dispersing from the area and not by kills. In a matter of days these hares return to their original home.

13.. The League likes to pour scorn on the introduction of hares on to estates as a conservation input, claiming that the environment will not sustain the higher numbers. As at Altcar, the introduction of new stock is only part of a scheme which must include new attitudes in the farming and keepering of the land. The hares introduced come from estates where they are in abundance and where otherwise they would have been shot for control purposes. They are never coursed until they have had the chance to become completely familiar with and have acclimatised to their new home.

14. Accusations by the League Against Cruel Sports that hares are released on the Altcar estate days before the Waterloo Cup meeting are nonsense. The variation in the number of hares killed at the Waterloo Cup compared with the seasonal average at all other coursing meetings is nominal considering that the best sixty four dogs in training run in the Waterloo Cup. If the hares coursed at Waterloo Cup lacked sufficient knowledge of the ground, one would expect a large proportion of them to be killed. In fact in 1999 fewer hares were killed at the Waterloo Cup than the seasonal average.

Hares Killed at Waterloo Cup

1999 108 courses 14 hares killed 1 in 7.7 or 12.90%

Hares Killed during a Coursing Season at NCC Clubs

1998/99 90 days 1611 courses 238 kills 1 in 6.7 or 14.7%

(Figures from Coursing Inspectors' Reports)

15. The 1976 House Of Lords Select Committee Report on coursing stated, "The Committee noted how some farmers will allow a relatively large population of hares to build up on their land, and accept a relatively large amount of consequential damage because they are interested in competitive coursing. This was confirmed by the RSPCA. Coursing is therefore welcome from the point of view of the naturalist and conservationist who can be assured of seeing hares where coursing is practised." (pg 7 16.) The Joint Nature Conservation Committee states clearly, "Field sports such as shooting, coursing, and beagling ... are not believed to pose a threat to the national population." (Current Status of the Brown Hare, JNCC, 1996) Even Professor Stephen Harris, who is well-known for his opposition to coursing and hunting, has admitted, "Where coursing is undertaken, hares are strictly preserved for the sport." (BBC Wildlife Magazine, September, 1996.) In the modern countryside the hare has many enemies, but coursing is not one of them. Where coursing takes place, predators are controlled, a suitable habitat is maintained, and farming methods are sympathetic. If coursing is banned, the motivation for landowners to preserve the hares will be stripped away. Action against activities which have existed for thousands of years will cause intense resentment, and it is the hares which could be the immediate victims of the inevitable backlash. Nor will it be just the hares which will suffer. The game crops, shelter belts, and spinneys which shelter the hares are also the home to multiple forms of bird, insect, and animal life.

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ANIMAL WELFARE

1. The Scott Henderson Committee, reporting in 1951 to the then Labour Government, concluded, "There are no grounds for supposing that (animals) suffer from apprehension to the same extent as human beings or that a frightening experience has the same serious or lasting effect upon them as it may have upon us." Coursing, unlike other hunting sports, has benefitted from two further enquiries into its activities since the Scott Henderson Report. In 1971, at the instigation of the British Field Sports Society, Owen Stable QC and RM Stuttard carried out a thorough examination of coursing. In 1976 a House of Lords Select Committee reported on a Coursing Bill then before the House.

2. We are indeed fortunate that both these reports are available for examination by the Committee of Inquiry into Hunting with Dogs. I have been assured that members of the Committee have access to copies of "Stable & Stuttard". I hope that they will forgive me for quoting at length from the House Of Lords Report, but the following sections on "Suffering" seem so rational and so sensible that nothing which I could submit could better them. The evidence of the RSPCA zoologist Dr DM Stoddart is central.

Extract from House of Lords Report

VI. PHYSICAL SUFFERING

20. Most wild animals die a violent death, but this does not justify the infliction by man of avoidable suffering even if it is no greater than that which the animal will suffer in the course of nature. The question is whether the degree of suffering caused by a sport is such as would justify legislation to ban that sport. The Committee conclude that a hare which dies instantly on being caught by a dog, cannot be said to suffer physically, but that a hare which is caught but not killed suffers physically until it is despatched. One witness repeated the common allegation that hunted hares suffer from intense stiffening of the limbs after an exhausting chase, but when asked for evidence replied that he would like to be able to produce it but could not. The Committee referred this question to Dr. D. M. Stoddart, a member of the team of professional zoologists who advise the RSPCA on wild animals. His answer was as follows:

"It is my view that any prey species which escapes from a predator will rapidly resume its normal activities. It is hard to envisage how the forces of natural selection, which work to encourage survival of the fittest individuals, would create a situation in which an escaped prey "item" would immediately make itself more liable to a second attack."

Neither did the Committee have any evidence, other than the unsupported statements of those who assert it, that hares suffer from congestion of the lungs or are found dead in ditches after being coursed. A number of dogs will take part in several courses on the same day: a hare only exceptionally more than once. Hares with their greater stamina are less likely to die from the effect a single course than greyhounds are from several. Nor did the Committee have any evidence which supported the allegation that greyhounds engaged in coursing more than occasionally suffer injuries. The physical suffering is limited to 120-l5O hares a year which are not killed instantaneously by the dogs. There can be no question that the total physical suffering caused by coursing matches is negligible compared with the suffering of hares wounded by shooting. If the coursed hare escapes, therefore, and coursing is followed by a hare shoot, the hare risks suffering more than if it had been killed by dogs.

VII. MENTAL SUFFERING

21. Coursing is said to cause mental as well as physical suffering. The Protection of Animals Act 1911 distinguished between domestic animals and wild animals in captitity, and wild animals at large. It is an offence to terrify the former which have either been selected by man over many generations for their readiness to become tame or have become tame enough as individuals to accept him as a provider of food: the shock to both would be severe if man whom they had come to look upon as a protector, suddenly became a persecutor. It is not, for example, an offence to terrify or frighten rooks or pheasants off new sown corn: to fly away from a potential predator is part of the normal way of life of both. It is against that background of the different reactions of animals in captivity and in the wild that the Committee approached the problem of mental suffering. Both these aspects were considered by the Scott Henderson Committee (paragraphs 37-42) in the light of the knowledge which was available in the 1940s. Briefly their conclusions were that animals suffer physically when they exhibit the symptoms that are normally associated with pain, and that it is reasonable to assume that they suffer mentally from "temporary fear and terror". So far as physical suffering is concerned, scientific thought has changed very little since that time; but where mental suffering is concerned, scientific knowledge has been greatly advanced by the study of wild animal behaviour carried out over the past thirty years by both professional and amateur zoologists. Departments and sub-departments of universities have been set up for the study of animal behaviour, and new techniques have been developed which allow a continuous monitoring of animal movements. Individual amimals of many species (including mountain hares in this country) have been watched for days on end, and their behaviour and reactions to other animals, both of the same species and of a predator, prey and neutral species, have been studied and recorded. Observations of this nature have led the Committee to disagree with the Scott Henderson Committee's conclusions concerning mental suffering set out in paragraph 42 of their Report. In considering this important question, the Committee sought the advice of Dr. Stoddart, whose evidence supports the considerations set out below.

22. A witness from the R.S.P.C.A. suggested that a minority of hares were so quickly killed that they seemed just to "give up" and not to try and escape and that this could be attributed to terror. He compared those hares with others "full of spirit and heart . . . strong and prepared to take on the dogs and get away," and did not suggest that hares were generally affected in that way. The Committee were unable to accept that this observed fact is due to non-physical causes, since it does not seem likely at this late stage in the evolution of the hare that individuals would still be produced liable to be so paralysed with fear as to be immediately eliminated. The first reaction of an observer might well be that the hare suffers by the very reason of being chased, of being "put in terror of its life ". Even if it escapes from its predators, it is said, the hare will have suffered. In considering this question, the Committee sought the advice of Dr. Stoddart. His evidence supported the following view. The hare is a prey species, that is to say, it has evolved with the capacity to move with great speed and to escape from its predators by that means and by jinking. Its flight is a natural instinctive and behavioural response; it is, in fact, a normal state of affairs. Just as it is biologically necessary for an animal to heed the warnings of physical pain, so also it is biologically necessary that an animal of a prey species should not suffer psychologically by reason of being chased. If an animal did so suffer, its capacity to escape would be impaired and the species would risk elimination by the process of natural selection. In addition to these considerations, it must be observed that an animal of a prey species like the hare has also evolved the capacity instinctively to resume, very quickly after the chase is over, exactly what it was doing before the chase began. Thus, if the hare was feeding when it was disturbed, it will quickly resume feeding after its escape; and if it was asleep it will quickly go back to sleep. These arguments would not hold good of an animal which finds itself in a totally unaccustomed situation like a forest fire or of one not of a prey species which finds itself being pursued, but the Committee believe that it would be mistaken to ascribe to a wild animal of a prey species the same feeling of distress when it is being pursued by a predator, as a Londoner would feel if he were alone on the Siberian Steppes with a pack of wolves on his heels. It was further suggested to the Commitee that it was cruel to course hares during the first two months of the year when many dams are pregnant. The expert advice that the Committee received, however, was that since hares do not go underground or hide away to produce their young, but drop their leverets in the open, it followed that the dam must be as well adapted to escape by her speed when pregnant as when not pregnant. One would expect a high incidence of abortion in the case of the pursuit of a pregnant animal which had not been equipped by nature to escape in that condition, like domestic cattle and sheep. There is, however, no evidence that a pregnant hare aborts after pursuit. It would, in fact, be maladaptive if a pregnant female were less able to escape from a predator. In the light of Dr. Stoddart's evidence, the Committee rejected the view that coursing involves mental suffering for the hare.

The complete "Hare Coursing Bill, Report from the Select Committee is appended.

3. Stable & Stuttard made nine recommendations (pg 113). All of these were accepted by the National Coursing Club, and have been assimilated into the organisation of coursing meetings for almost thirty years. In fact the House Of Lords Committee noted that all the recommendations had been accepted by the time of its Report. (pg 12 25.)

1) A Coursing Inspector is appointed for every meeting from a panel approved by the NCC to ensure that the welfare of the hare is protected.

2) The length of slip is now at least 80 yards, and is often considerably longer, depending on the nature of the ground run over.

3) The slipper only slips on hares which appear strong enough to have a good chance of escape.

4) The points awarded for the kill have been reduced to one, if awarded at all.

5) There are four pickers-up, (ie hare despatchers,) identified by yellow arm bands.

6 & 7) The Coursing Inspector takes note of the state of the boundaries of the coursing ground, and the parking of the vehicles.

8) No person is allowed to interfere with the course so as to endanger the hare.

9) Photography at meetings is at the discretion of the stewards, but permission is normally granted for bona fide journalists, enthusiasts etc.

4. The essence of the recommendations of the two reports can be found in NCC Rule 41. Welfare of the Hare, and the Rules to which it refers.

Rule 41. Welfare of the Hare

The Coursing Inspector shall ensure that

(1) No ground is used for coursing that restricts the freedom and liberty of the hares.

(2) The four "pickers-up" are present and fully and at all times comply with Rule 2 (7).

(3) The slipper fully and at all times complies with Rule 20 (1), observing the due law and ensuring that the hares are in fit condition to be coursed.

(4) The Stewards of the Meeting ensure that neither the state of the going nor the arrangements on the field in any way hinder the escape of the hare.

(5) All persons present fully and at all times comply with Rule 21, Duty to Dispatch Hare.

(6) The hares coursed show sufficient knowledge of the ground.

The Coursing Inspector shall report to the Senior Stipendiary Steward any breach or non-observance of this Rule, which may be dealt with by the Standing Committee either under Bye- Law (S) or Rule 40 of this Code or both, at its discretion.

Rule 2 (7) The Committee shall appoint (and shall notify the Stewards of such appointment) four "Pickers-up" who throughout the Coursing Meeting shall be stationed two on each side of the coursing ground and as near as is practicable to where the courses are likely to end. If the hare be brought down the "Pickers-up" shall without delay go to the hare and satisfy themselves that it is dead, and if it is not dead they shall kill it forthwith.

Rule 21. Duty to Dispatch Hare

(1) Notwithstanding that this Code of Rules provides for the appointment of four "Pickers-up" at every Coursing Meeting it shall be the duty of any person (including any person who has gone forward in accordance with Rule 19 (2) but excluding the Judge) who is in the vicinity of any hare brought down, before taking any other action, to satisfy himself that the hare is dead and if it is not dead to kill it forthwith.

5. In the Lords Report the Committee noted that "about 20 percent" of the hares coursed were killed. (pg 3) The figures of hares killed at NCC meetings in the 1990's show how the adoption of the nine recommendations have reduced the number of hares being killed to a marked extent.

Hares Killed during a Coursing Season at NCC Clubs

1990/91 84 days 1951 courses 241 kills 1 in 8.1 or 12.3%

1991/92 94 days 2094 courses 288 kills 1 in 7.2 or 13.7%

1992/93 100 days 2043 courses 272 kills 1 in 7.5 or 13.3%

1993/94 96 days 1838 courses 229 kills 1 in 8.0 or 12.4%

1994/95 99 days 2041 courses 237 kills 1 in 8.6 or 11.6%

1995/96 87 days 1880 courses 235 kills 1 in 8.0 or 12.5%

1996/97 89 days 1967 courses 245 kills 1 in 8.0 or 12.4%

1997/98 100 days 1981 courses 284 kills 1 in 7.0 or 14.3%

1998/99 90 days 1611 courses 238 kills 1 in 6.7 or 14.7%

(Figures from Coursing Inspectors' Reports)

6. The House Of Lords Report noted that "the logical end of the policy of the National Coursing Club would be the elimination of kills altogether." Although it is true that it is possible to enjoy an excellent day's coursing without a hare being killed - and there are such days in every coursing season - it would not be possible to eliminate the kill completely. The House Of Lords Committee requested that more experiments with muzzling should take place. Further trials with muzzles have been run but, although muzzling has been adopted for enclosed coursing in Eire, recent trials have demonstrated that muzzling is not appropriate for open coursing in this country.

7. Muzzling of coursing greyhounds at enclosed meetings was introduced gradually during the 1993/94 season in Ireland. From January 1st 1994, on the direction of the Irish Coursing Club, all greyhounds running at enclosed meetings had to be muzzled. The use of muzzles reduced the number of hares killed at these meetings to a very small number. At the National Meeting at Clonmel in February 1994, some 164 courses were run but only three hares were trapped by the dogs.

8. Significantly, in open coursing in Ireland, also controlled by the Irish Coursing Club, the greyhounds are not muzzled. The National Coursing Club does not regard the muzzling of coursing greyhounds as a viable proposition in this country. Here all coursing is open field coursing. The last enclosed meeting was run in 1914, and the rules of the National Coursing Club do not permit this form of the sport. In enclosed coursing, if muzzled greyhounds trap the hare between them, because of the limited size of the ground used, it is possible for stewards to be positioned the length of the field so that they can intervene quickly and rescue the hare from the dogs. If they did not do so, there is a possiblility that the hare could be bludgeoned to death, involving considerably more suffering than if the dogs had been unmuzzled.

9. In Britain the hare enjoys a very good chance of natural escape for various reasons. As it has not been held in captivity prior to the meeting, (as in enclosed coursing,) the hare has the advantage of its natural and full health. The hare is running over its own territory and is aware of all the natural escapes and its best route to safety.

10. In open coursing it would be impossible to steward the ground in the way possible at an enclosed meeting. There would be a risk that the greyhounds could trap the hare in a remote place where it would take some time for people to intervene. This would increase rather than diminish the possibility of suffering to the hare if the dogs were muzzled. The National Coursing Club feels that in open coursing it is more humane to use unmuzzled dogs which can kill the hare instantly.

11. The effect of the measures undertaken in the past twenty years can be found in the attitude of the media to coursing. For the past twenty five years NCC coursing meetings have been open to television crews and journalists. Often, particularly at the Waterloo Cup which is subjected every year to intense media scrutiny, the length of television film shown can do little to make the public aware of just what happens at a coursing meeting, although the subsequent discussion is usually balanced. Other programmes, however, which have concentrated on discovering the reality rather than exploiting the controversy, have been much more objective. Although some tabloid newspapers maintain their traditional posture of hysterical disapproval, there seems a growing willingness throughout the media to treat coursing fairly. Coursing cannot lie to the camera. Unlike other field sports, which are difficult to follow however good your horse, or however fleet of foot you may be, coursing takes place within yards of its participating public.

12. We have concentrated on the welfare of the hare, but the welfare of the greyhound breed should not be forgotten. Many people might assume that all greyhounds race willingly on tracks after an artificial lure. This is not the case. A significant percentage refuse to chase an artificial lure. It is not known what the effect of an abolition of coursing in this country might have on the desire of the greyhound to chase an artificial lure. What is certain is that numbers of greyhounds, which refuse to chase on a track, will no longer be able to pursue a second career on the coursing field. The abolition of coursing would add to the number of unwanted track racing dogs. All greyhounds will chase a live hare, and several refugees from the track have proved themselves top-class performers on the field.

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IMPLEMENTING A BAN

1. It should be remembered that legislation against organised competitive coursing would have no effect on the contemporary problem of hare poaching by gangs trespassing on land, particularly in the eastern counties. These gangs, always aggressive and frequently violent, would have no more respect for new legislation than they have for the status quo. The police have shown themselves quite unable to bring these people to justice, and this should be remembered by anyone attempting to legislate on any form of coursing. The success of legislation would depend on the passive good will of the followers of organised coursing. What do legislators intend to do to win this good will?

2. The 1976 House Of Lords Report concluded that the Bill before it "is not a suitable instrument for reducing the suffering of hares. The welfare of the hare would not be appreciably affected by it, since the amount of physical suffering caused by competitive coursing is probably 1 per cent of the amount caused by hare shooting and non-competitive coursing." Although the National Coursing Club commends much of the 1976 Report, it does not consider that, if coursing was banned, "The welfare of the hare would not be appreciably affected by it." On the contrary, the welfare of the brown hare in this country would be seriously damaged. At best coursing landowners and farmers no longer would preserve a sympathetic environment on their land for hares, and at worst would shoot the hare stocks which they had preserved for so long.

Appendix 2

HARE COURSING

BILL [H.L.]

Report from

the Select Committee

Ordered by The House of Lords to be printed

6tth May 1976

(176)

LONDON

HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE

35p net

HARE COURSING BILL(H.L.)

REPORT FROM THE SELECT COMMITTEE

ON THE BILL

ORDERED TO REPORT:

I. INTRODUCTORY

1. The Bill which was referred to the Committee is identical with that passed by the Commons in the last Session of Parliament which was extinguished by the prorogation. Having been introduced in the House of Lords in the present session, it was given a second reading and referred to a Select Committee on the 16th December, 1975. Although apparently simple, it deals with complex and controversial issues which, whatever the decision of the House, could affect issues outside its immediate scope. It has one clear aim, not to abolish Hare Coursing, but to abolish competitive Hare Coursing matches in which the aim is to test one dog against another. The Committee have heard the oral and written evidence of all interested parties and have visited one Greyhound and one Whippet meeting, while individual members of it have visited three other meetings. The Committee are fully convinced that those coursers whom they met are not sadists but people who believe that they are engaged in a legitimate and controlled country sport; they are equally convinced that those who are against coursing are sincere in their belief that the sport is cruel. The Committee also studied the Report of the Scott Henderson Committee which recommended, albeit somewhat ambiguously, that no action should be taken to abolish any form of Hare Coursing, and the Review of Coursing by Messrs. Stable and Stuttard which was initiated by the British Field Sports Society and sets out the views of that body with recommendations for changes in the National Coursing Club rules to achieve greater control of Coursing matches.

2. Competitive Coursing takes one of two forms, Static Coursing (paragraphs 9-14) in which the hares are driven from an adjoining field onto a coursing field by a line of beaters. and walking-up coursing (paragraph 15) in which the competitors and spectators move from field to field, while the spectators in line act as beaters. Meetings of both types of coursing are arranged by local clubs. Most greyhound meetings are run under the control of the National Coursing Club. A few greyhound clubs are independent, but some of these at least are reported generally to use National Coursing Club rules. The National Coursing Club can expel a club which offends against the Club's rules and debar it from taking part in approved meetings and from registering the pedigrees of its members' greyhounds. There are said to be also informal coursing matches for greyhounds organised in villages by people who are not members of a club nor recognise the National Coursing Club, but probably observe somewhat similar practices. The Whippet, Saluki and Deerhound Clubs are independent, but their rules are based on those of the National Coursing Club.

3. Non-competitive coursing takes place all over the country, for sport, for control or to get hares for the pot or for sale. There are many gradations between competitive and non-competitive coursing. For instance, coursing

2 REPORT ON HARE COURSING BILL (H.L.)

matches may be combined with non-competitive coursing; or two or more farmers may go out coursing together and either have a competition between their dogs or not. There is a 'grey area' between competitive and non-competitive coursing and the line drawn in the Bill between them is by no means clear. This is discussed later in this Report.

4. There are two species of hares in Great Britain, the Brown Hare (Lepus europaeus) and the Blue or Mountain Hare (Lepus timidus). The Brown Hare is the larger, faster and more powerful animal and is found throughout low-land Britain, being most abundant on arable land in East and Central England. This is the species used for coursing and is well known for its tendency to stay within its normal home range and for its refusal to leave that territory, except when the male may go outside it to seek a mate during the breeding season. It is advantageous for a prey species to remain on ground which it knows intimately and where it consequently has an advantage over a pursuing predator. The size of the hare's home range varies according to the food supply and population density and in Great Britain is between two or three hundred acres and a square mile. The Blue hare is mainly found in upland Scotland. It is a smaller and weaker animal than the Brown Hare, is not so fast and relies more on its capacity to dodge than on its speed to escape from a predator. It is thought to be more easily killed than the Brown hare and is therefore not used for competitive coursing save only occasionally in Scotland. The Committee were told that where numbers are large coursing is sometimes used as a means of control.

5. Except in Northern Ireland which is outside the scope of this Bill, it is illegal to course hares in an enclosed space from which they cannot escape. and the rules of the National Coursing Club go further and forbid holding a coursing meeting on a ground onto which hares have been artificially moved and have not been at liberty for the preceding six months. In static coursing where the hares are driven onto a coursing field by beaters, both the fields from which they are driven and the coursing field itself must, therefore, be within the normal home range of those hares. The hares are driven over fields which they know and onto a field which they know. If the terrain is unfamiliar, they will run back between the beaters, however closely placed. In walking-up coursing hares will always be found in their normal home range.

6. Most greyhounds are trained in the kennels of professional trainers; some by their owners. The minor coursing breeds (whippets, salukis and deerhounds) normally live with their owners as pets. Coursing is neither a rich man's nor a poor man's sport. Membership of clubs varies from £3 to £15 a year. The cost of a meeting for static coursing falls on the club and may vary, from about £130 to about £250 for the more elaborate meetings such as at Altcar. Altcar has some pretence to be a social occasion; the more rural meetings which members of the Committee visited, appear to attract much the same sort of cross section of the community as would be seen at any point-to-point or agricultural show and the cost of admission appears to be much the same. A proportion of the spectators at the meetings attended by members of the Committee were from neighbouring towns. As many as a thousand spectators might attend meetings of the four or five largest clubs. The average meetings are tending to become local attractions, but some, like the Whippet Club, restrict

3 REPORT ON HARE COURSING BILL (H.L.)

spectators to invited guests and maintain the character of a private club. (However, the Whippet Club admitted representatives of the anti-coursing societies on the occasion of the Committee's visit.) Coursing clubs are required by the National Coursing Club rules to prevent the sides of the field becoming so lined with spectators as to 'restrict artificially the complete freedom and liberty of the hare'. Walking-up coursing is never likely to have many spectators, if only from the fact that it is an arduous sport and farmers will not want a large number of people walking over their land. There is no longer much betting at static coursing meetings; what there is takes place at the larger meetings. The Committee were told1 that the combined turnover of the four leading book-makers averaged £12,000 a year over the six seasons up to March 1975.

7. There are about 120 coursing days for Greyhounds held in a year, and about 25 for whippets, deerhounds and salukis combined. A course ends with the death or escape of the hare. It is generally accepted that about 20% of the 3,000 or so hares coursed in matches are killed, about 600 a year in all, and that of the hares killed about 20~25%, 120-150 in all, are not killed by the dogs outright, but have to be taken from them by the pickers-up (paragraph 14). These figures comprise all coursing done under the National Coursing Club rules, including minor breeds. Many thousands of hares - probably hundreds of thousands - are killed annually by shooting, and smaller numbers by non-competitive coursing and hunting by harriers and beagles. The Bill is therefore concerned only with a very small percentage of hare deaths caused by man, apart altogether from deaths by predators. It has been argued that public opinion is increasingly opposed to coursing matches. The Committee point out however that if those canvassed by the societies are as ignorant of the facts as members of the Committee were before the inquiry, the value of this statement must be considered debatable.

8. It has been suggested that, irrespective of the degree of the suffering of the hare, it is wrong for individuals to indulge in a sport which results in suffering to any animal. The Committee consider that this is a matter for an individual's conscience, not a basis for legislation. Everyone is concerned to reduce the suffering of wild animals caused by man. The question is whether the suffering of the hare can be effectively diminished by this Bill or whether there are better ways of tackling the problem.

II. STATIC COURSING

The Coursing Field

9. The boundaries of a coursing field consist of the usual field boundaries of the district and where these boundaries take the form of hedges, they will have natural gaps or holes through which can pass either the hare alone or, in the case of a larger hole, the hare and, with greater difficulty, the greyhounds. Where the boundaries are stone walls or banks, artificial escape holes are arranged; these are large enough to allow the hares to pass through but not the greyhounds. Varying arrangements are made with wire netting fences according to the size of the mesh. Since greyhounds hunt by sight, and not by scent, the dogs are helpless once the hare gets through a hole and is out

1Mr. McCririck Memorandum: Minutes of Evidence 19th March.

4 REPORT ON HARE COURSING BILL (H.L.)

of sight. On two fields artificial shelters, called "Soughs" are built, into which the hare can pass but not the dogs.

The Beat

10. The beaters form up in a line about half a mile from the coursing field with flankers in front of the line on either side. It is clear that the beaters cannot start the beat much more than this distance since, if they did, they would be attempting to drive some of the hares outside their normal home range. If that is done, the hares will run out of the beat however much the beaters wave their flags and shout. The object of the man in charge of the beaters is to bring the hares forward to the coursing field one by one. If more than one is in sight when the dogs are released, each may run after a different hare and no competition can take place. The beaters, therefore, have to move forward slowly and halt when a hare gets up to run forward. If all goes as planned, the hare will canter forward onto the coursing field, oblivious of danger in front and apparently not unduly disturbed by the beaters behind. If the hare veers to the right or left, the flankers may wave their flags in order to indicate potential danger in that direction. and thus urge it in the desired direction. However, if they or the beaters wave their flags too vigorously or shout (as inexperienced beaten will sometimes do), the hare may make a dash for the nearest refuge and thus escape the beat altogether, or else run wildly about putting up other hares which will then behave in the same manner. In such circumstances, a single hare would only appear on the coursing field by chance. In all the courses which the Committee saw, the hare came onto the coursing field and cantered straight ahead as if changing ground to get away from disturbance. It made no attempt to go through the nearest escape hole in the hedges to right or left where there were no spectators until aware of the imminent danger from the hotly pursuing dogs. After a single hare has been brought onto the coursing field and the course completed, the line will move forward again. At some meetings, the Steward in charge of the beaters is kept in touch with proceedings on the coursing field by means of a short wave radio system.

The Course

11. The Slipper stands with two dogs in leash either under the hedge through which the hares are driven, or in the Slipper's Box if there is no other shelter. This "box" is usually made up of bales of straw and its purpose is to hide both slipper and dogs from the approaching hare. An experienced slipper said1 in evidence that most hares are fit. It is not therefore so much a problem of picking out fit ones as of holding the dogs from the small minority of unfit ones. The slipper watches each hare as it comes up behind, slows down to go through the hedge and then canters on. Most are fit and he will let slip the dogs; if an unfit hare, or one with feet balled up with mud comes along, he will not. Slippers consider their task not difficult but the Committee accept that mistakes can sometimes be made. The rules of the National Coursing Club provide that the Slip i.e. the law given to the hare, must not be less than 80 yards and it seems usually to be nearer 100. The course then starts, the Judge following on a horse. The average duration of a course is about 30-35 seconds for greyhounds, 60 seconds for whippets, 90 seconds for deerhounds and 180 seconds for salukis.

1 Q.462

5 REPORT ON HARE COURSING BILL (H.L.)

First Stage: The run-up

12. The run-up is the term used to describe the course from the point when the dogs are slipped until they overtake the hare, during which the hare relies on its speed alone to escape. The speed of the dogs is very much greater than that of the hare at this stage and it is surprising how quickly the hare is overtaken. The Committee understand that since the length of the slip was increased, there are few kills during the run-up. Points are awarded by the Judge to the faster dog during the run-up.

Second stage: jinking

13. This stage begins when the dogs overtake the hare. The hare then uses its second means of defence, dodging to one side or "jinking ". The dogs then overshoot and the hare gains a yard or two, until the dogs' superior speed brings them up again, when the hare will dodge again. The dodgings of the hare are not automatic defence reactions (although the first two or three may be): the hare can soon be seen to be working its way with each turn towards an escape hole, sough or other cover until the dogs have overshot far enough to give the hare the necessary time to slow down and slip through to safety. The Committee saw several hares, in successive courses, on the same field, lead the dogs towards the same piece of cover or escape hole and then go through, suggesting that they were well acquainted with the field and were able to plan their escape accordingly. During this stage, the dogs will be awarded points for their skill in recovering from an overshoot and getting up to the hare to make it dodge again; it is on these points that a course is usually decided. It is during this stage also that most of the kills take place. Only one point is awarded for the kill and it is rare that that one point will affect the issue. While the "jinking" is taking place, the dogs will tire and the superior stamina of the hare begins to tell. Some say that a hare which is not caught during the first 30 seconds or so has won the course, and certainly if, during that half-minute, the hare has not been killed or has not escaped already, the course tends to turn into a procession: the hare no longer has to dodge, but instead runs straight towards the nearest cover, while the dogs fall further and further behind. For those who have not seen it before the transformation is surprising. The Committee saw several hares which came forward during the early stages of a beat and escaped from the dogs by running back onto the field over which they had just been driven. Some certainly then went out to a flank but there was no means of telling whether any of the others did or did not go back in front of the beaters to come forward again.

Third Stage: The Kill

14. Two members of the Committee saw four kills at close quarters: in each case the hare was killed instantly. Such other kills as took place were at such a distance from the spectators as to make it difficult or impossible to see exactly what took place, but there is no dispute between those who oppose and those who support coursing as to what happens. The rules of the National Coursing Club lay down that there shall be two pickers-up on either flank whose task it is to run inwards and kill any hare which is held by the dogs and is still alive; the Rules also lay down that the first duty of the dog handlers (who run forward to collect their dogs after a kill) is to ensure that the hare is dead. The representatives of some animal protection societies gave harrowing descriptions

6 REPORT ON HARE COURSING BILL (H.L.)

of hares screaming as they were killed. Photographs were produced of hares being killed, some of which illustrate the "tug-of-war" which occurs when two dogs seize the hare at the same time, one at either end. Although no member of the Committee heard a scream or saw a "tug-of-war", they were shown a film which illustrated both; and they have no doubt that a hare which is not killed instantly will scream with pain, or that a tug-of-war will sometimes occur: when two dogs are chasing the same animal, it is natural that the dog which reaches the hare second should seize hold of its prey, whether the first dog has killed it or not. Similarly, it is likely that a single dog, or two dogs holding the hare between them, will sometimes succeed in running away with the hare (alive or dead) when a man tries to take it away. The Committee were told1 that hares, running for their lives sometimes scream, not while they are jinking but when they are hard pressed by dogs, but that that sound differs from the scream of a hare in pain.2 It was suggested by some that it was a cry of terror, by others that it was an instinctive escape device aimed at startling the dog which was about to seize it. The Committee did not consider that the evidence for either contention was more convincing than that for the other. Whichever it is, this scream was said to be heard very rarely, which tends to confirm the Committee's impression that most kills occur when an unlucky jink turns the hare unexpectedly into a dog's mouth. It is only in a very small number of cases that the hare may realise that it is about to be seized, when this scream will be uttered, either as a defence reaction or in terror. It is not denied that a tug-of-war sometimes happens: the dispute arises from the question whether the hare which is carried off is more often alive or more often dead. The Committee were not given any convincing evidence to support either contention. The tug-of-war photographs do not, of course, indicate whether the hare is alive or dead. Nevertheless, since it is admitted by all that between 75% and 80% of the hares killed die instantly, it seems probable that a similar proportion of those carried off or pulled at by the two dogs are dead. >From the evidence of kills observed, the Committee are of the opinion that the pickers-up reach living hares and despatch them within a relatively short time (to be reckoned in seconds) unless the hares are carried away by the dogs.

III. WALKING UP COURSING

15. As has been described in paragraph 2, in walking-up coursing the participants form up in a line and walk slowly across country. The Slipper is in the centre of the line and lets slip the dogs when a hare gets up which he thinks strong enough to be coursed. The judge is usually mounted, but may be on foot following the course with field glasses while the line halts. The Pickers-up are in the line, so it takes longer to reach the hare which is not killed instantly. Since there is no prepared coursing field, hare and hounds can go away out of sight, but it seems probable that the course would then have turned into a chase and would lead to the ultimate escape of the hare. Since no paid beaters are needed and the slipper and judge are often amateurs, it is much cheaper than static coursing. It can cost as little as £5, going up to between £50 and £60. It is therefore usually practised by the smaller clubs on up to 20% of the number of days' coursing under National Coursing Club rules.

I Qs. 363, 370, 635.

2 Q 592.

7 REPORT ON HARE COURSING BILL (H.L.)

CONTROL AND CONSERVATION

16. Hares are injurious to agriculture and forestry and in places where they are at all numerous the annual increment must be killed off, but no more than annual increment if they are not to become rare. Poison and the gin-trap are illegal, while biological control by a host-specific disease such as myxomatosis is only acceptable if a pest has to be exterminated. The only other methods available are snares, nets or hawking (which are not really effective), shooting, hunting and coursing. The Committee were given a number of instances of how, in walking~up coursing, competition was sometimes combined with control; for instance, one greyhound club1 which meets every week throughout the season for walking-up coursing combines competitive with control courses at each meeting, and the Scottish Deerhound Society said that at times when there was a superabundance of blue hares they killed many "on the way back2" after a competitive walking-up meeting. The Committee noted how some farmers will allow a relatively large population of hares to build up on their land, and accept a relatively large amount of consequential damage because they are interested in competitive coursing. This was confirmed by the RSPCA.3

Coursing is therefore to be welcomed from the point of view of the naturalist and conservationist who can be assured of seeing hares where coursing is practised. On the other hand, coursing men themselves say that so few hares are killed in competitive coursing that it does little to control the hare population and that most of the annual increment has to be killed off at the end of the coursing season in order to prevent serious damage to agriculture. This inevitably means4 that more hares have to be shot at the end of the season.

17. It was generally agreed by all those giving evidence that hare shoots caused much more suffering than hare coursing. Nobody disagreed that the number hares (both absolutely and proportionately) which die a lingering death after being wounded in a hare shoot is much larger (perhaps running into tens of thousands) than the number of those which are not killed instantly when caught by greyhounds nor was it disputed that they suffered for a longer period. At the same time, it was generally agreed that shooting was essential if hares were to be controlled. The Committee were impressed with the argument that hare shooting is control and competitive coursing is not, but every death of a hare is in effect control and it makes no difference to the hare whether its death comes under the arbitrary label of control or not. Some argued that if there were no coursing, fewer hares would be preserved and therefore there would be less suffering. This is a negative policy of despair; it is directly contrary to the modern policy of conserving the countryside with all its associated flora and fauna in the greatest possible numbers, not merely preserving the rare species which have to be protected by law. In any case the numbers will be dependent on the decision of the farmer of the leve1 at which he wants to maintain the population of animals and the number which must be killed off each year to keep it at that level. In fact, therefore, the size of the hare population is as likely to be influenced by the economic balance as by preservation for coursing, which affects a relatively small part of the countryside.

1Lord Denham's Evidence, 25th March.

2Q.768.

3Q.282.

4Q.506.

8 REPORT ON HARE COURSING BILL (H.L.)

V. THE EVIDENCE OF THE SOCIETIES

18. The Committee were impressed by the obvious sense of vocation of the opponents of coursing but they found little sign of a desire by them or by the National Coursing Club to co-operate in trying to reduce the amount of suffering involved in competitive coursing. One society, for example, suggested1 that with a 120 yard slip, when the dogs overtake the hare "they are by this time so tired that the hare can escape by twisting and turning", and this was corroborated by Commandant Fitzpatrick's evidence.2 That suggestion might usefully have been made to the National Coursing Club. Unfortunately such cooperation has not taken place. The Committee consider that this is partly due to the failure of one side to understand the ambivalent attitude of the countryman towards the wild animals he lives among, at one moment regarding them with an affectionate interest, at the next shooting or coursing them. There are few things that a countryman enjoys more than leaning across a gate on a warm summer evening watching rabbits, playing as they come out feed - except perhaps rabbiting with ferrets, terriers and pursenets down a hedgerow by day or setting a long net at night between rabbits which are feeding and the wood from which they came. On the other hand, it may true that a great many coursing people are only interested in hares when they see them on the coursing field, testing the skill of their own or other people's dogs; perhaps they never watch them, or even want to watch them chasing each other and "boxing" in the spring, but the Committee reject the suggestion that any of them go to coursing meetings just to see hares being killed. In the past the National Coursing Club seems to have reacted to criticism by trying to exclude the critics, a policy which inevitably led to suspicion that there was much to hide. It is only comparatively recently that they started to try to reduce the number of kills.

19. The evidence of the coursing clubs was in general factual, and they showed themselves willing to submit their rules to outside scrutiny. What particularly emerged from their evidence was that the kill is virtually irrelevant in competive coursing. Although the societies were undoubtedly sincere in their desire to diminish animal suffering, their evidence, though mostly factual, did not always support their case. One society described3 a coursing beat in terms which would have ensured the failure of the course and gave a wildly exaggerated estimate of the distance covered by the beaters, which local enquiry proved to be unfounded. Another society suggested4 that there had been fraudulent practice at the Waterloo Cup to prevent screams being heard, on basis of evidence which proved to have a completely innocent explanation. Misleading evidence of this nature is often all that is available to those who have not had the opportunity of studying hare coursing at first hand. This did not however affect the first issue facing the Committee, the assessment of the degree of suffering involved in coursing matches.

VI. PHYSICAL SUFFERING

20. Most wild animals die a violent death, but this does not justify the infliction by man of avoidable suffering even if it is no greater than that which the animal will suffer in the course of nature. The question is whether the degree of suffering caused by a sport is such as would justify legislation to

1 Barnes Wild Life and Animal Welfare Group Evidence, 4th February

2 Qs.826, 827

3 Q.647, National Society for the Abolition of Cruel Sports, Ltd. Evidence, 11th March

4 League Against Cruel Sports Supplementary Evidence, 11th March.

9 REPORT ON HARE COURSING BILL (H.L.)

ban that sport. The Committee conclude that a hare which dies instantly on being caught by a dog, cannot be said to suffer physically, but that a hare which is caught but not killed suffers physically until it is despatched. One witness repeated the common allegation that hunted hares suffer from intense stiffening of the limbs after an exhausting chase, but when asked for evidence replied that he would like to be able to produce it1 but could not. The Committee referred this question to Dr. D. M. Stoddart, a member of the team of professional zoologists who advise the RSPCA on wild animals. His answer was as follows:

"It2 is my view that any prey species which escapes from a predator will rapidly resume its normal activities. It is hard to envisage how the forces of natural selection, which work to encourage survival of the fittest individuals, would create a situation in which an escaped prey "item" would immediately make itself more liable to a second attack."

Neither did the Committee have any evidence, other than the unsupported statements of those who assert it, that hares suffer from congestion of the lungs or are found dead in ditches after being coursed. A number of dogs will take part in several courses on the same day: a hare only exceptionally more than once. Hares with their greater stamina are less likely to die from the effect a single course than greyhounds are from several. Nor did the Committee have any evidence3 which supported the allegation that greyhounds engaged in coursing more than occasionally suffer injuries. The physical suffering is limited to 120-l5O hares a year which are not killed instantaneously by the dogs. There can be no question that the total physical suffering caused by coursing matches is negligible compared with the suffering of hares wounded by shooting. If the coursed hare escapes, therefore, and coursing is followed by a hare shoot, the hare risks suffering more than if it had been killed by dogs.

VII. MENTAL SUFFERING

21. Coursing is said to cause mental as well as physical suffering. The Protection of Animals Act 1911 distinguished between domestic animals and wild animals in captitity, and wild animals at large. It is an offence to terrify the former which have either been selected by man over many generations for their readiness to become tame or have become tame enough as individuals to accept him as a provider of food: the shock to both would be severe if man whom they had come to look upon as a protector, suddenly became a persecutor. It is not, for example, an offence to terrify or frighten rooks or pheasants off new sown corn: to fly away from a potential predator is part of the normal way of life of both. It is against that background of the different reactions of animals in captivity and in the wild that the Committee approached the problem of mental suffering. Both these aspects were considered by the Scott Henderson Committee (paragraphs 37-42) in the light of the knowledge which was available in the 1940s. Briefly their conclusions were that animals suffer physically when they exhibit the symptoms that are normally associated with pain, and that it is reasonable to assume that they suffer mentally from "temporary fear and terror". So far as physical suffering is concerned, scientific thought has changed very little since that time; but where mental suffering is concerned, scientific knowledge has been

1Q.672.

2Dr. Stoddart, Supplementary Evidence, 19th March

3Qs.294, 431, 524, 633.

10 REPORT ON HARE COURSING BILL (H.L.)

greatly advanced by the study of wild animal behaviour carried out over the past thirty years by both professional and amateur zoologists. Departments and sub-departments of universities have been set up for the study of animal behaviour, and new techniques have been developed which allow a continuous monitoring of animal movements. Individual amimals of many species (including mountain hares in this country) have been watched for days on end, and their behaviour and reactions to other animals, both of the same species and of a predator, prey and neutral species, have been studied and recorded. Observations of this nature have led the Committee to disagree with the Scott Henderson Committee's conclusions concerning mental suffering set out in paragraph 42 of their Report. In considering this important question, the Committee sought the advice of Dr. Stoddart, whose evidence supports1 the considerations set out below.

22. A witness from the R.S.P.C.A. suggested that a minority of hares were so quickly killed that they seemed just to "give up" and not to try and escape and that this could be attributed to terror. He compared2 those hares with others "full of spirit and heart . . . strong and prepared to take on the dogs and get away," and did not suggest that hares were generally affected in that way. The Committee were unable to accept that this observed fact is due to non-physical causes, since it does not seem likely at this late stage in the evolution of the hare that individuals would still be produced liable to be so paralysed with fear as to be immediately eliminated. The first reaction of an observer might well be that the hare suffers by the very reason of being chased, of being "put in terror of its life ". Even if it escapes from its predators, it is said, the hare will have suffered. In considering this question, the Committee sought the advice of Dr. Stoddart. His evidence supported the following view. The hare is a prey species, that is to say, it has evolved with the capacity to move with great speed and to escape from its predators by that means and by jinking. Its flight is a natural instinctive and behavioural response; it is, in fact, a normal state of affairs. Just as it is biologically necessary for an animal to heed the warnings of physical pain, so also it is biologically necessary that an animal of a prey species should not suffer psychologically by reason of being chased. If an animal did so suffer, its capacity to escape would be impaired and the species would risk elimination by the process of natural selection. In addition to these considerations, it must be observed that an animal of a prey species like the hare has also evolved the capacity instinctively to resume, very quickly after the chase is over, exactly what it was doing before the chase began. Thus, if the hare was feeding when it was disturbed, it will quickly resume feeding after its escape; and if it was asleep it will quickly go back to sleep. These arguments would not hold good of an animal which finds itself in a totally unaccustomed situation like a forest fire or of one not of a prey species which finds itself being pursued, but the Committee believe that it would be mistaken to ascribe to a wild animal of a prey species the same feeling of distress when it is being pursued by a predator, as a Londoner would feel if he were alone on the Siberian Steppes with a pack of wolves on his heels. It was further suggested to the Commitee that it was cruel to course hares during the first two months of the year when many dams are pregnant. The expert advice that the Committee received, however, was that since hares do not go underground or hide away to produce their young,

1 Qs. 703-72 7

2 Q. 295.

11 REPORT ON HARE COURSING BILL [H.L.]

but drop their leverets in the open, it followed that the dam must be as well adapted to escape by her speed when pregnant as when not pregnant. One would expect a high incidence of abortion in the case of the pursuit of a pregnant animal which had not been equipped by nature to escape in that condition, like domestic cattle and sheep. There is, however, no evidence that a pregnant hare aborts after pursuit. It would, in fact, be maladaptive if a pregnant female were less able to escape from a predator. In the light of Dr. Stoddart's evidence, the Committee rejected the view that coursing involves mental suffering for the hare.

VIII. THE BILL

23. In considering the Bill itself the Committee found themselves faced with difficulties which led them to conclude that the Bill had certain deficiencies quite apart from the question of whether or not it was relevant to the broader issue of suffering. The Committee emphasise that the object of the bill is not to prevent coursing but to prevent coursing matches, that is the testing of one dog in competition against another. Two men loose their dogs simultaneously on a hare. If they have a bet on which reaches the hare first but do not judge which is superior in the fine points of coursing, is it to be a crime or not? If they do not bet, but agree which dog courses the better, is it a crime or not? Is it the intention that the Bill would be infringed if the dogs are simultaneously released? When the Club to which reference is made in paragraph 16 combines competitive with non-competitive coursing throughout the day, is it to be alternately committing and not committing a crime? So far as the hare is concerned, the activity is exactly the same in both cases. The Committee did not think it would be extreme to describe such a situation as absurd.

24. It is an elementary principle of justice that Parliament, when it sets out1 to create a criminal offence, should make it clear to the potential offender exactly what it is that will constitute the crime. But in the Bill it is not clear where the line is to be drawn on the long gradation from organised coursing matches, which are clearly to be illegal, to the case of the two farmers who go out to course a hare and in doing so cannot help observing which of their dogs is the better. It is inevitable that there would be private prosecutions under the Bill, if enacted, and the Committee believe that the Courts would have great difficulty in trying to find where the line should be drawn. It would, in effect, be drawn between what can be proved and what cannot be proved. Coursing matches controlled by the National Coursing Club rules would be abolished; informal coursing without the benefit of the rules would not be prosecuted and might well increase. Lord Diplock stated before the Committee that he would regard such reliance on the availability of evidence as a "reproach to our criminal law". It is true that the Bill could be amended to make all coursing of a hare by two or more dogs illegal, but that is far from the intention of the Bill, and the Bill so amended would clearly be unenforceable. The Committee therefore reject the view of the representatives of the Home Office that the Bill as drafted is clear and enforceable.

IX. THE DIMINUTION OF SUFFERING

25. It would be wrong for the Committee not to examine further what practical steps can be usefully taken to reduce the suffering to hares in coursing, should

1Qs. 864-879.

12 REPORT ON HARE COURSING BILL (H.L.)

it be decided that the Bill should not go forward, however few hares are affected. The Committee noted that the result of recent changes in the rules of the National Coursing Club has been to reduce the number of hares killed in competitive coursing. The National Coursing Club have, for example, adopted all the recommendations set out in paragrah 413 of the "Review of Coursing" by Messrs. Stable and Stuttard. The Committee have referred above to the superiority of the speed of the greyhound at the beginning of a course. This superiority is a characteristic of all predators (such as the hunting leopard) which hunt by sight and make a quick rush upon their prey. The recent policy of the National Coursing Club amounts to an attempt to reduce this superiority. It is probable that they have taken these steps as a reaction to the criticisms of animal welfare societies, but it is also true that there is "better coursing" if the hare is not killed in the early stages. One of the most significant alterations in the rules of the National Coursing Club has been the increase of the length of the slip, the result of which has been to wear down much of the superiority of the greyhound before the hare is overtaken. One witness who was in favour of the Bill suggested that, if the slip were extended to 120 yards, it would so tire the dogs that the hare would almost inevitably escape by jinking. At this year's Waterloo Cup meeting, the slipper's box was moved so that the dogs overtook the hare closer to the soughs and other escape holes; this too had the expected effect of reducing the number of kills. Furthermore, the National Coursing Club have expressed their willingness to appoint a paid steward whose task it would be to inspect coursing fields in order to satisfy himself that there were enough escape holes and that they were of an appropriate size to allow the hare to pass through at speed, but not the dogs. It appeared to the Committee that the logical end of the policy of the National Coursing Club would be the elimination of kills altogether.

26. During the debate on the Second Reading of the Bill in the House of Lords, it was suggested that muzzling the dogs might effectively stop any suffering. The Committee put this suggestion to a number of witnesses, both to those in favour of the Bill and to those against; both showed1 considerable opposition - indeed it seemed the only point on which the coursers and the societies were in complete agreement. Their argument was that muzzling would increase the possibility of injury to the dogs and that because of the greyhounds' considerably greater weight and strength, there was a real danger that muzzling could mean increased suffering for the hare. The dogs could kill with their paws and the hares die more slowly. Nevertheless, the Committee asked that trials with muzzled dogs should be held and the Huntingdonshire Club was good enough to arrange nine experimental courses at the end of the official coursing season. There was no judge and no competition. At the request of the Committee the slip was very short (about 30 yards or so) in order to give the dogs the maximum advantage. Two courses were by unmuzzled dogs, one with one muzzled and one unmuzzled dog. One hare was killed by an unmuzzled dog. Six courses were by muzzled dogs. Of one of these it was the opinion of some onlookers that there would have been a kill had the dogs not been muzzled. Wire racing muzzles were used which were obviously unsuitable and the gums of one dog were injured. All the hares escaped unharmed. After the muzzling trials the Committee were informed of experiments with muzzling which had been held in Ireland. In three out

I Qs. 139, 387, 487.

13 REPORT ON HARE COURSING BILL (H.L.)

of twenty trial courses with muzzled dogs one of the dogs knocked down a hare by tripping over it and then attacked the hare with its feet. This evidence seemed to support1 the misgivings which had been expressed by the National Coursing Club. However, the Committee noted that the Irish course the Lepus timidus hibernicus, a subspecies of the blue hare found in Scotland; they were not convinced that the results obtained at the Irish trials would necessarily be produced in England where the larger Brown hare is found, and their view was supported2 by expert biological evidence. A successful experiment with only six courses suggested that muzzling should not be dismissed out of hand, but that more experiments should be held and a more suitable muzzle should be designed. Trials should also take place with whippets, salukis and deerhounds, the first much smaller and lighter than greyhounds, the third heavier.

27. The Committee are of the opinion that the rules of the National Coursing Club should be further considered, but not by coursing interests alone. They were told of two publications on Avian and Mammalian Predators which had been produced by committees which represented conservationists, naturalists, gamekeepers, animal welfare societies and sportsmen. These seem not only to have resolved the age-old argument between naturalists and game preservers about "vermin", but also have established the best and most humane methods of killing those predators which have to be destroyed. These two Committees have shown how potentially conflicting interests can work together. The RSPCA are taking a new interest in the welfare of wild animals and have recently set up a scientific Committee to advise it in this matter. They have also arranged for an investigation on foxes by a University Department. The Committee hope that the National Coursing Club and the RSPCA will be able to discuss together the setting up of a Joint Advisory Committee on Hare Coursing consisting perhaps of representatives of coursing clubs, the RSPCA, veterinary surgeons, zoologists and conservationists. This Committee would consider all matters likely to diminish the suffering of the hare such as muzzling, the lengthening of the slip, and supervision by stipendiary stewards of the National Coursing Club, and should recommend how to bring all organised coursing matches under National Coursing Club control. The Committee believe that the recommendations of such a joint advisory Committee should be subject to the approval of a statutory committee appointed by the Secretary of State. One of the members of the Select Committee has put before the Committee a Bill for this purpose which is appended to this Report.

28. There is one further proposal to which the Committee wish to draw attention, since the coursing of hares is concerned, although it goes beyond the strict terms of reference of this enquiry. At present, wild animals are excluded from the provisions of the Protection of Animals Act 1911, save when kept in captivity. The Scott Henderson Committee recommended that wild animals should be brought within the scope of that Act; that all field sports should be conducted in accordance with a code of practice laid down by a voluntary body, subject to the approval of an Advisory Committee appointed by the Secretary of State and that there should be a provision in the amended 1911 Act that any action taken in accordance with the code of practice approved by the Advisory Committee should not be an offence against it. All the coursing

1 Evidence of Commandant Fitzpatrick, 25th March.

2 Dr.Stoddart, Supplementary Evidence, 25th March.

14 REPORT ON HARE COURSING BILL (H.L.)

clubs said that they would accept legislation to this effect. The Committee believe that these suggestions should now be further examined.

Conclusions

29. As a result of their investigations, the Committee have concluded that the Bill is not a suitable instrument for reducing the suffering of hares. The welfare of the hare would not be appreciably affected by it, since the amount of physical suffering caused by competitive coursing is probably less than 1 per cent. of the amount caused by hare shooting and non-competitive coursing. It is possible that even this small degree of suffering might be eliminated altogether by further extensions of the National Coursing Club's current policy and by the use of muzzles, if further tests should show that muzzles were effective. The Committee have made the first independent investigation into competitive hare coursing since some of the members of the Scott Henderson Committee saw the Waterloo Cup in 1950. The facts which have been brought out by the present investigation, including the likelihood that the kill and the physical suffering which it involves, can probably be eliminated, could not have been appreciated when the Bill and its predecessors were drafted, and were not available when they were debated in Parliament. The Committee do not believe that chasing the hare causes terror. The ethical question should in their opinion be for the individual conscience and not for legislation. The Bill if enacted would lead to an absurd distinction between the criminal and the innocent courser and confused and contradictory interpretation by the Courts, and the distinction between the criminal and the innocent would in effect depend on the availability of the evidence, which would be an affront to the criminal law. For all these reasons the Committee recommend that the Bill should not proceed, but that action should be taken by those concerned to examine further current coursing practice and legislation for the protection of wild animals on the lines which they have suggested.

15 REPORT ON HARE COURSING BILL (H.L.)

APPENDIX

Hare Coursing Regulation Bill

Explanatory Memorandum

This Bill is designed to eliminate, short of accidents, the physical suffering caused by competitive hare coursing. The basic problem is relatively straight forward. The hare escapes from an enemy by its great speed and staying power and its capacity to dodge or "jink" if overtaken in flight. The greyhound is considerably faster than the hare but lacks staying power so that advantage disappears, fairly quickly. If the law given to the hare "the slip", is short the hare is likely to be killed: if long the hare will draw away from the dogs as their speed slackens before they overtake it. A slip somewhere between those two extremes, combined with other provisions favourable to the hare, would allow it to escape unharmed and the dogs to show their skill.

At present most competitive coursing meetings are organised by Clubs affiliated to the National Coursing Club and under Rules laid down by that body. Those Rules do not apply to other Clubs, do not necessarily take into account the views of conservationists and animal welfare societies and have no legal sanctions behind them. The Bill is designed to secure that the Rules will be drawn up with the advice of conservationists and representatives of animal welfare societies, will allow the dogs to show their skill, the hare to escape unharmed and will be observed at all competitive coursing meetings.

16 REPORT ON HARE COURSING BILL (H.L.)

Clause 1 provides for an independent Coursing Committee to be appointed by the Secretary of State to advise him on the conditions under which competitive coursing shall take place.

Clause 1(2) specifies certain conditions with which the Committee must concern itself, amongst the most important of which is the length of the slip.

Clause 1(4) provides that the Rules of the National Coursing Club as approved or modified by the Coursing Committee shall control all competitive coursing other than that exempted under Clause 3.

Clause 3 exempts coursing competitions involving not more than 3 pairs of dogs eg that a dozen friends going out together to course hares for control or for the pot will be able to have a competition between their dogs if their fancy so directs them without coming within the scope of the Bill. The Bill only applies to regular competitive coursing meetings involving 4 or more pairs of dogs.

17 REPORT ON HARE COURSING BILL (H.L.)

A BILL

TO

REGULATE HARE COURSING

Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:-

Regulation of Coursing

1. (1) Not later than six months after the passing of this Act the Secretary of State shall appoint a Committee, (hereinafter called "the coursing committee") who shall be constituted in accordance with the Schedule to this Act and who shall be charged with the duty of determining and recommending for the approval of the Secretary of State the conditions under which coursing competitions may take place.

(2) Without prejudice to the foregoing generality there shall be included among such conditions:

(a) a condition that the competition is held in accordance with the deposited rules;

(b) conditions as to the length of the slip, the positioning of the slipper and where hares are driven on to a field before being coursed the provision of means of exit from that field or of entry into shelters traversable by hares, but not by dogs and to the positioning of spectators; and

(c) conditions to regulate the duration of a course.

(3) If there be any conflict between the deposited rules and the conditions determined by the coursing committee the conditions shall prevail.

(4) For the purposes of this section the expression "deposited rules" means the Rules of the National Coursing Club for the time being in force and as deposited with the Secretary of State for the purposes of this section.

Publication of conditions

2. As soon as may be after receiving the recommendations of the coursing committee the Secretary of State shall if he approves the conditions recommended by them take such steps as he thinks fit to make public the said conditions (hereinafter referred to as "the approved conditions").

Unlawful coursing competions

3. If any person causes or assists at, or knowingly permits or suffers any place to be used for a coursing competition, other than a competition conducted in accordance with the approved conditions he shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding £200 or, if he has been previously convincted of an offence under this section, to a fine not exceeding £400.

Interpretation

4. In this Act-

"approved conditions" has the meaning assigned to that expression by Section 2 of this Act;

"coursing" means the pursuit of a hare by dogs in circumstances in which before the dogs are released or permitted to begin such pursuit steps have been taken to bring those dogs and that hare within sight of each other;

"coursing competition" means a competition in which four or more pairs of dogs are engaged, with each pair being slipped in pursuit of a hare and intended to establish which is the best dog.

19 REPORT ON HARE COURSING BILL (H.L.)

Short title, extent and commencement

5.-( 1) This Act may be cited as the Hare Coursing Regulation Act 1976.

(2) This Act shall not extend to Northern Ireland.

(3)This Act (except section 3 thereof) shall come into force on the date of its passing and section 3 shall come into force on a day specified in an order made by the Secretary of State by statutory instrument which date shall not be earlier than 12 months from the date of the publication by him of the approved conditions.

SCHEDULE

THE COURSING COMMITTEE

L. The Coursing Committee shall consist of a chairman and four members of whom-

(a) The Chairman and one other member shall be appointed by the Secretary of State and be persons who the Secretary of State is satisfied have no interests in coursing which might hinder them from discharging their functions as members of the coursing committee in an impartial manner

(b) one shall be appointed by the British Field Sports Society;

(c) one shall be appointed by the Nature Conservancy Council;

(d) one shall be appointed by the Secretary of State after consultation with such organisations as may appear to him properly to represent the interests of animal welfare.

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