DOGS banned from coursing in Britain are to compete in Kilkenny on January 14, but animal rights activists will be in hot pursuit and are planning a demonstration at the event.

Coursing — a race between two greyhounds chasing a wild hare — was outlawed in England and Scotland by the Hunting Act 2004, but is still legal in Ireland, subject to licensing conditions.

Irish animal rights activists are planning a peaceful protest at the Seamus Hughes International tournament in Sevenhouses, Co Kilkenny, demonstrating against what they call a “sinister and worrying trend of cruelty tourism”.

The National Coursing Club in Britain is advertising the tournament on its website and the Springhill Court hotel in Kilkenny has taken 40 bookings from British hare coursing followers.

Half the 32 places at the tournament are being reserved for British greyhounds that would have competed in the Waterloo Cup, the premier coursing tournament in Britain that was run annually at Altcar near Liverpool since 1836.

A British newspaper reported last week that the Kilkenny tournament would in fact stage the Waterloo Cup, but Jerry Desmond, chief executive of the Irish Coursing Club, said this is not the case. “This event may include people from England but I can guarantee it is not the Waterloo Cup,” he said.

The Waterloo Cup was last run in February, just days before the Hunting Act came into force. An estimated 10,000 people attended the event, and 250 animal rights campaigners mounted a protest.

Desmond said that there had not been any protests at coursing events in Ireland this season and was unaware of any demonstrations planned for this month’s event in Kilkenny.

The Fight Against Animal Cruelty in Europe (FAACE) group has been organising demonstrations against the Waterloo Cup since the late 1980s. Tony Moore, FAACE’s chairman, confirmed that he is planning to travel to Ireland to support Irish animal rights protesters.

“While there is a natural link between the countries because of the strong Irish connection to coursing in England, this seems wrong,” he said.

“Ireland doesn’t need the problems that these hunting people bring. I don’t think the farmers over there want them either.”

Aideen Yourell of the Irish Council Against Blood Sports (ICABS), is organising the protest against the coursing event. “This is very worrying,” she said. “We have heard that more than 300 people are travelling to attend the event. This is like a consolation prize for them losing the Waterloo Cup, but English coursers coming over here puts extra pressure on our hare population.

“Coursing has been suspended in Northern Ireland already because studies there have shown a shortage of hares. They have two clubs, in Dungannon and Ballymena, but they are now hosted by clubs here in Cavan and Donegal and extra coursing has been organised for their benefit.”

ICABS lobbies the government for changes in legislation rather than staging protests at coursing events, but Yourell said it was necessary to highlight the fact that English coursers are now travelling to Ireland in the wake of the Hunting Act. The aim was to “signal our concern at people from England travelling over here for what is a type of cruelty tourism and the fact it now seems like open season for them to do so”.

Yourell said her organisation wants Dick Roche, the environment minister, to ban hare coursing in Ireland as it is “inherently cruel from beginning to end”.

The National Coursing Club says that, on average, just one out of eight hares are killed during coursing events and this is usually instantaneous. In addition, there are four “pickers-up” strategically placed on the coursing field whose duty is to dispatch the hare in cases where the dogs fail to kill instantaneously.

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