Protecting hares

INCREASING PROTECTION FOR HARES

Born Free calls for legal protection for hares during their breeding season.

In Britain we’re lucky to be home for two species of hare – the brown hare, which has been resident since Roman times and is most commonly seen on arable farmland, and the mountain hare which prefers heathlands in Scotland and the North of England.

However, both have declined dramatically. There may have been as many as four million brown hares across the UK as recently as 1880. The most recent estimates suggest that brown hares now number less than 600,000.

Yet 300,000 or more hares are shot each year on farmland and shooting estates, in the name of sport.

In Scotland and across most of Europe, hares are protected against shooting and deliberate killing during their breeding season, which typically runs from February to September.

However, in England and Wales hares enjoy no such legal protection and can be shot for sport all year round. Most shoots take place in February and March when females are already pregnant or nursing dependent young.

The shooting of hares during the breeding season results in the loss of breeding females and death of dependent young (leverets) through starvation. Countless animals suffer and die as a consequence.

Back in the 1990s, the Government classified both species as ‘Priority Species’ under the UK Biodiversity Action Plan with a target of doubling spring numbers in Britain by 2010. However, this target was never achieved, and a voluntary code of practice introduced by the shooting industry in 2013 has failed to prevent shoots from taking place in the breeding season. Several attempts by parliamentarians to introduce a ban on shooting during the breeding season over the past decade have failed, because of pressure from the shooting industry and a lack of parliamentary time.

Without legal protection, the future for hares looks bleak.