COURSING

Grey River Argus, 10 September 1940, Page 7

COURSING

CRITICISM RESENTED. [Per Press AssGciacionJ MASTERTON, September 7. At the closing of the Wairarapa Coursing Club’s season at the Akura Plumpton the president, Mr J. Bradbury, said’ that the end of the season had been somewhat marred by unwarranted attacks on coursing generally. “If the Dunedin branch of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has nothing more important to occupy its talents than the harassing of the time-honoured sport of coursing, then there can be *’ tie cruelty in New Zealand,” said Mr Bradbury. “It is pathetic, particularly in war time, to hear of these wellmeaning but ill-informed crusaders talking hotly about cruelty when an odd hare is exposed to its natural enemy, the greyhound. “For the society to harass the Government with such unnecessary, petitions at a time like this is little short of disloyalty. It was the same in the last war. When the young men were away defending New Zealand, thej busy-bodies of that age seized the opportunity of making similar nambypamby proposals. The Government would be well advised to examine all such petitions from this one angle: I ‘Will our .war effort by assisted thereby?’” Mr Bradbury said that judged from this aspect, the proposals to stop livehare coursing would receive scant attention. “Of course, if all the hares were of the ferocious variety discovered by the ‘Dominion’ cartoonist, some very effective role could be found for them in the war effort,” he added.

Mr Bradbury concluded by saying that anyone watching cotirsing today could see that with the facilities and training provided hares nowadays; the danger of the animals was reduced to a minimum. Every effort; had been made by coursing organisa-

tions to reduce the kills, and when occasional disaster did occur it was generally an odd ■ weakling. Cours-

ing clubs generally would welcome any suggestions that would reduce the chances of a kill still further.