ANIMAL lover Tony Moore has achieved notoriety for his attempts to stop animal cruelty.
He is campaign manager for the Fight Against Animal Cruelty in Europe (FAACE) group - based just a few miles down the road from Altcar in Southport - but has travelled the world trying to get his message heard.
Mr Moore says: "Hare coursing is a step back in the evolution of mankind. "The animals are not a pest because they don't dig holes in the ground and don't significantly damage crops because they tend to live alone rather than in massive groups like rabbits.
"And as the event takes place in February, lots of the hares have young leverets or are heavily pregnant and to put them through this is immoral.
"Although it can be less we have figures to show one in four hares die as a result of coursing.
"It is not done as a measure of pest control, it is not done as a matter of necessity, or to feed hungry people, it is done out of an obscene desire to watch animals die.
"Coursers will tell you the object is not to kill and they prefer it when the hare gets away, but this just doesn't wash.
"When the hounds catch their quarry a huge cheer goes up from the crowd. "Points are awarded, among other things, for killing the hare so you can not say this is not one of the objects of the exercise.
"There is no benefit to the hare population by holding such events.
"Hares are often imported from places like Newmarket to make sure there are enough, so they are not familiar with the ground and have a less than evens chance of survival anyway.
He concludes: "The eyes of the world are on the Waterloo Cup because if its notoriety, so care is taken not to show cruelty.
"The problem is, if hare coursing is not banned for good and soon, the smaller, less renowned meetings will continue with their cruel practices."
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