per year). Muzzled dogs are more likely to buffet a hare than to bite it, a factor that may still affect the hare's subsequent survival. Hares can either die due to injuries sustained by contact with the much larger dogs or due to capture myopathy. The report from the official Countryside ranger at the Wexford Coursing Club meeting in December 2003 confirms that, exceptionally, 40 hares died at the event and the report of the veterinary surgeon who examined the hares blames the "significant stress" of being "corralled and coursed". Coursing supporters deny that hare coursing is cruel and say that hares that are injured, pregnant or ill are not allowed to run. Hares are reported to be examined by a vet before and after racing. In the context of open (not park) coursing, the (British) National Coursing Club evidence to the Burns Inquiry said that muzzled coursing can cause more suffering than unmuzzled if the coursing officials are not able to reach injured hares quickly. The Irish Council Against Bloodsports, an organisation that campaigns against hare coursing has video evidence that shows this happening, even in enclosed coursing. The kill In 2000, the rules of the UK National Coursing Club awarded a point to a greyhound that killed a hare "through superior dash and speed". By early 2003, this rule had been deleted to remove the appearance of the kill incentive. Observers of hare coursing at the Waterloo Cup – the most important event in the UK coursing calendar until it was last held in 2005 – regularly reported a minority of people in the crowd cheering when hares were killed. In 2005 in the US, points were still awarded for a "touch ... where the quarry is captured or killed". The number of hares killed in coursing is unclear. The UK government's Burns Inquiry which submitted its final report in 2000 said that about 250 hares were killed each year in formal coursing. although much larger numbers of kills are believed to take place in informal coursing. The UK National Coursing Club and the organisers of the now defunct Waterloo Cup said that, on average, one in seven or eight hares coursed were killed. Inspectors from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals who attended the event estimated that a greater number, one in five hares coursed, was killed. During the 2013 season, the Irish