coursing is popular in the Republic of Ireland, with the national meeting in Clonmel, County Tipperary, being the most important event in the coursing calendar, attracting 10,000 spectators, and claimed by its organisers to be worth up to €16 million for the local economy. There are around 70 formal coursing clubs in the Republic and two in Northern Ireland, together holding 80–85 meetings per year. There are several differences between the rules of coursing in Great Britain (where it is regulated by the National Coursing Club) and Irish coursing which has been organised by the Irish Coursing Club since 1916. Because hares are not plentiful in all parts of the island of Ireland, mainly due to modern agricultural practices, coursing clubs are licensed by the Irish government to net 70–75 hares for their events. The hares are then transported in boxes to the coursing venue where they are kept for up to eight weeks and trained to be coursed. Instead of being coursed on open land, the Irish form is run in a secure enclosure over a set distance. Since 1993, Irish Coursing Club rules have made it compulsory for the greyhounds to be muzzled while they chase the hare. After the coursing event, the hares are transported back to where they were netted and re-released into the wild. Whereas the UK form of coursing was run with dogs winning points for their running and turning of the hare, the Republic of Ireland form is run on the basis that the first dog to turn the hare wins. This is denoted by either a red flag or a white flag, indicating the colours of the respective dogs' collars. Variations in the United States Greyhounds were introduced in the Americas for sport and pleasure, they helped farmers control jackrabbits, and organised coursing meets were taking place in the United States in the 19th century, by 1886 according to Gulf Coast Greyhounds. Open field coursing of jackrabbits, which are members of the hare family, now takes place in a number of states in Western America, including California, Montana and Wyoming, and is said by the North American Coursing Association to take place also in Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah. It takes place with up to four dogs chasing the hare. The legality of hare coursing across the different states of the US is not always clear. Animal Place, a California-based animal