Hare coursing gangs are terrorising the countryside

If you’re driving at dawn or at dusk in the countryside at this time of year, you might well see shady-looking men standing around in a stubble field, their 4x4s parked close by and ‘long’ dogs — greyhound types — straining on the lead beside them.

Watch and you’ll see them walk up the field, or along the edges, until a hare makes a bolt for it. The men are ready. This is what they’re there for. A dog is let off the lead, and someone with a phone videos the scene. The footage is being live-streamed to others who have placed bets on the outcome —guessing which dog will kill the most hares per ‘slip’, or chase. When the hare has been caught (or when it’s scarpered), another dog has a go.

Modern-day hare coursing is illegal, but even so it’s become common in the UK, especially after harvest and in counties where the fields are flat. It’s such a significant problem that Labour this week included a pledge in their animal welfare manifesto to ‘bring in measures to effectively tackle hare coursing’, funded by £4.5 million they’ve promised to police wildlife crimes.

Hare coursing involves poaching and trespassing, and it’s aggravating and damaging to farmers — but it’s very hard for them to prevent, because of the sort of men who do it. When one hare courser’s home was raided recently, the police uncovered a stash of guns, ammunition and cannabis — as well as his coursing lurchers. These men come with muscle. Coursers often travel in convoy, with a car or van of ‘minders’ at the front and rear. Farmers who confront them get, at best, a barrage of abuse, but many have received death threats.