activity under the Hunting Act 2004 even if the dogs used are muzzled. No formal coursing has taken place in Northern Ireland since 2002, as Ministers have refused the coursing clubs permission to net hares, and have protected them from being coursed or hunted under the Game Preservation (Northern Ireland) Act and in June 2010 the Northern Ireland Assembly voted to ban the practice. The two extant Northern Ireland coursing clubs since 2002 have travelled to the Republic to hold meetings jointly with coursing clubs there. Opinion polls commissioned by the League Against Cruel Sports as part of its campaigning have shown very strong public opposition to hare coursing from both urban and rural residents of Northern Ireland (and the Republic of Ireland). In 2015, it was reported that hare coursing incidents had fallen by approximately 78 per cent across Suffolk since the re-launch of an operation against coursing in September 2013. United States California In early 2006, the TV channel ABC 7 showed a film of coursing with sets of three greyhounds competing in the chase of a number of hares. Coursing was banned in the County concerned, and California Assemblywoman Loni Hancock promoted a bill, AB2110, to make it a crime for any person in California to engage in open field coursing – defined as a "competition in which dogs are, by the use of rabbits, hares, or foxes, assessed as to skill in hunting live rabbits, hares, or foxes". A pro-coursing campaign was also established. The Bill was passed by the Public Safety Committee but did not become law. See also Countryside Alliance Jackson v Attorney General League Against Cruel Sports Rabbiting Further reading Copold, Steve. Hounds, Hares & Other Creatures: The Complete Book of Coursing (1st ed.). Arvada, Colo.: D. R. Hoflin, 1977 (1996). M. H. Salmon ("Dutch"). Gazehounds & Coursing: The History, Art, and Sport of Hunting with Sighthounds, Rev. and expanded 2nd ed. Silver City, N.M.: High-Lonesome Books, 1999. . The Greyhound and the Hare: A history of the breed and the sport Charles Blanning, The National Coursing Club, 2018 Greyhound Nation: A Coevolutionary History of England, 1200–1900 Edmund Russell, Cambridge University Press 2018. Twenty Two Waterloo Cups 1981-2005 Charles Blanning, Fullerton Press in association with the National Coursing Club, 2022. References Coursing (blood sport) Hare hunting Lepus