Innocence Lost - Waterloo Cup 2004

Starting Young: Waterloo Cup supporters gesture towards the anti-hare coursing campaigners at Altcar. Parents stood by and did nothing.

On the first day of the Waterloo Cup, hundreds of people opposed to the barbaric practice of hare coursing braved the cold and wet weather to join a protest march to represent the massive majority of the general public who find all forms of hunting with dogs cruel and abhorrent and want them banned now.

Anti-coursing protestors were greeted by coursing supporters jeering, screaming obscenities and even throwing bottles. One of these bottles actually flew above the protestors and hit a coursing supporter on the head! Quite distressing was the fact that some of those hurling abuse were young children who had clearly been exposed to the blood sports scene for too long.

		One hare was pulled from the freezing water in a ditch as it tried to escape. One person says he say one hare try escaping through the coursing crowd, and like last year, it was picked up and thrown back onto the field for the greyhounds to continue the chase. Despite much media coverage in the run up to this years' Waterloo Cup it attracted one of the lowest turnouts of coursing supporters its history. Even the presence of the coursers' pin-up girl, Clarissa Dickson-Wright failed to bring in the crowds.
Mindless Waterloo Cup supporter.

The low turn out was later confirmed by the marked absence of coursing people in and around Southport. Even the Prince of Wales Hotel, which is supporting the event this year, was remarkably quiet.

Undercover RSPCA observers revealed 13 hares died during the three-day Waterloo Cup. That includes seven killed during a total 32 "slips" (races) on Tuesday, and three killed on each subsequent day. Heather Holmes, spokeswoman for the RSPCA said: "The dispatch times show that they do not die quickly and cleanly, and the response of the crowd when a hare is killed is jubilant. We hope this will be the last time our officers will have to attend."
		Waterloo Cup supporters threw bottles at protestors.

The event, in its 157th year, saw a torrent of insults between protestors and supporters with children as young as seven swearing and hurling abuse at protestors. As the protesters marched onto Lord Levershulme's estate at Great Altcar, near Southport, child coursing supporters lined up alongside their parents to face their opposition.

But Emma Milne, from BBC's Vets in Practice programme, who is backing a campaign by the International Fund for Animal Welfare to ban the event and was attending for the first time, disagreed. She said: "I think it is very bizarre. They could still do all of this and use a false hare. They say it is about pest control but you don't get this kind of a turnout for a cockroach exterminator. If a group of teenagers from an inner city council estate set their dogs on a cat then there would be uproar. This is compl ete ly unacceptable."

In the run up to the Waterloo Cup Southport Lib Dem MP John Pugh joined forces with anti-hunt protesters on Lord Street, Southport. His aim was to make members of the public aware of the cruelty and suffering to hares during next weeks Waterloo Cup Event.

Protesters at Altcar (click to enlarge):

Dr Pugh said, "None of the usual somewhat pathetic excuses for bloodsports work when it comes to hare coursing. It plays no role in the control of pests, the protection of livestock etc. Its just human beings trying to enjoy themselves by being cruel to another species. The fact that it takes place on our doorstep is a matter for shame, regret and very vocal protest. I am delighted to see the League Against Cruel Sports orchestrating the expression of widespread community revulsion".

Mark Hendrick, MP for Preston and Colin Pickthall, MP for West Lancashire, turned up as objectors to the event. Mr Pickthall predicts that the event will soon be gone for good, stating "Hare coursing is the most horrible of a wide range of unpopular blood sports. The Waterloo Cup, which takes place in my constituency, is its major event. The elected chamber has consistently voted by huge majorities to ban hunting with dogs. Our will cannot be ignored. I am confident that the end of coursing with dogs is nigh."

Organiser of the Waterloo Cup had hoped that the announcement that minor 'celebrities' Vinnie Jones and Clarissa Dickson Wright had entered greyhounds in the controversial 157th Waterloo Cup would help stem the event's decline. Jones was recently convicted of air rage whilst Dickson-Wright, half of 'Two Fat Ladies', recently filed for bankruptcy again. It is hard to know who is the most desperate for publicity, Jones and Dickson-Wright or the Waterloo Cup organisers. Given Mr Jones's famous temper he should feel right at home at the Waterloo Cup.