shoot all brown hares

roedeerred

Well-Known Member
I find it disterbing that some estates are shooting every brown hare on sight now in order to deter lurcher men they say its the only way to stop poachers as police do not want to know.
Your Thoughts on subject.should law be changed?
 
I find it disterbing that some estates are shooting every brown hare on sight now in order to deter lurcher men they say its the only way to stop poachers as police do not want to know.
Your Thoughts on subject.should law be changed?

Which law would you have changed,and how?
 
I dont know any keepers that stupid , you want to belive half of what you see and nothing you hear
 
Trouble you must live in a bubble if you have not heard of it before.I have had a few say this is common practice in areas where long dogs are a real problem and have been asked to do it myself.reason no hares no reason for dog men to come!!
 
You want to come and look at the hares round here , i could fill the pick up in a night and next door is the same . We dont have problems with long dogs because we are about all hours , earley morning and late at night , we have good relations with the police and their very good at coming out if theres a problem . You wont find us sat in the house if theres nothing to do we are patroling the shoot or sat on a vantage point . We all know these boys love to boast about catching cotswold hares so we put the hours in , the secrets in the name gameKEEPER , maybe thats why we dont have alot of grief in our "bubble"
 
trouble glad to here you do not have a problem you must be very lucky to have full support of police also.last time I rang the police at 3am it was 35minutes before the police arrived and all they were intersted in was where was I going (stalking of course) I showed them all the nessecary paper work which wasted another 10 minutes.The suspect vechile not hare courses would then have been 20miles away assuming it travelled at 30miles an hour.unfortunatly I am not a fulltime keeper and have to make a living in other work.
 
I am a 'full time' keeper. If we were paid by the hour for being out when theres 'nothing else to do', I'd be very well off!.
I've apprehended 'coursers' and been advised by them that 'if I interefere, my head would be ripped off' and 'all my poults will be killed'. The landowners don't want reprisals as 'we know where you live'. And best of all, the police won't intervene as the threats have no 'substance' - and yet I've been advised by them (police) not to interfere with coursers as they will report me for armed threat and they (the police) will have no recourse but to take my firearms off me until the matter is fully investigated.
My only recourse to date is to harrass with my light from a good distance. (Mines brighter than theirs!).
Sod it. Whats on telly!.
I'm invited to stalk in the Cotswolds quite regularly; and I see no signs of the kind of 'weight' of coursers (I hesitate to use other monikers) we have around here.
 
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Anyone aware of the legal position or otherwise if a "keeper" shoots a coursing dog in the process of chasing a hare or a deer at night (apart from being able to run away quickly) and is this a possible solution? After all in the dark he would not be able to see the handlers at the other end of the field and he would not therefore be endangering any others.
 
Shooting the dogs may make you feel better but the landowner wont half pay for it when they turn up late one night, these people are the scum of the earth they would stab you and leave to die without a second thought why do you think the police wont get involved ! shoot all rabbits hares foxes on site and keep your deer numbers down
 
I find it disturbing that the threat of reprisals for "interfering" with an illegal activity would dissuade any land owner from pursuing a course of justice against poachers.

fear of violence is one thing. turning blind eye another.
There are ways and means of working with the police and securing your property against this without having to turn a blind eye. trial cams, photo evidence, logs of vehicle movement, constant calls to the police.
build up enough evidence and help the police secure a conviction for any offence

if estates are persecuting a hare population purely to remove the inherent interest they present to the "boys with dogs" then they probably shouldn't have estates.
I suspect that it is more to do with a combined course of crop protection if numbers are that high.

myself and another chap picked up two lurchers that were clearly coming to the end of a chase and on the opposite side of the field to the owners.
They came very quickly to us and jumped in the back of the van. We then drove them to the police station about 4 miles away. On the way we saw the owners looking for their dogs and politely informed them where they could pick them up.

then began a amusing keystone cops chase around the countryside (which we knew better than they did and consequently lost them!)

Police thought this most amusing but ultimately they couldn't press charges.
Whilst rash and not recommended, done in the days of my youth, we didnt see any "boys with dogs" for a long long time after.



good luck shooting a long dog at full tilt in the dark!
 
call the police give them a tour of the estate , show them any lanes or landmarks you can , point out these chaps are keen on scrap metal and fuel theiving as well as wildlife crime . Killing hares is not the way to go . Any keeper with time to sit indoors watching telly has time to be out killing foxes , and thats the point , if your out and about they notice and stay away . If you find coursers inform the police they has dead hares on them , therefore the offence is commited and the police are duty bound to investigate . You dont need to confront these men , remember , turn a blind eye and your a soft touch and theyll be back and while your sat indoors your covers are being disturbed hence putting your job on the line
 
I think your missing the point you never find any game on these people because they do it gamble they place bets on the dogs to catch rabbits , hares, foxes and deer , a keeper near us found deer carcasses just left out to rot having had their throats ripped out and backends !
 
Keeper I know doesn't spend his time inside with the telly, he spends a little time raising his family. To prevent the long dog boys being there when you can't it seems only logical to remove temptation. Just because it is a different take doesn't make it wrong.
 
By the sounds of the other threads we are lucky in my area - but then again I (and other guys in the area) haven't let the problem take grip either. By jumping on guys early it may have just stopped larger number of poachers bothering to come on our land. With regards to threatening behaviour from the poachers, it might be lucky for me that i'm 6'10" and look rough most of the time - I for sure wont be shining lights from the other side of the hedge and it must be a bad state of affairs that others feel like they cant approach these guys (if thats the case you really need the police or a trainned guard dog or more than one of you!)

That being said, I once had a couple of lads with a centrefire on my land - I gave the police all the evidence they needed (except a video and DNA) and nothing was done at all which was poor on that occasion if I'm honest. Are we talking about gypo's or a broader type of scum bag with a dog?
 
I feel for all of you chaps. Fortunately the land I shoot on is for pleasure only although I do put a lot of hours in helping out the land owners with all of the vermin its nothong compared to the time you chaps do. To have scum like this doing what they do makes me very angry so I cant imagine how it must feel in yuor position. Too tempting to do something in the heat of anger but not right to take it out on their dogs either really. It aint their fault. I know what I would aehv done in my youth but now with 3 kids and a good job (at the moment) I think Id have to try everything within the law to defend the land. Cant believe some of you are in a position that you have to shoot the Hares to keep them off. Loads around here, the land did used to be used for coursing in the old days and some of it ideal fpr the long dogs but we dont seem to be plagued with it like you. ATB Steve
 
Steve you are indeed very lucky ! I am now expected to rifle shoot every hare on some farms and if a deer has the audasity to show itself near a road then oh deer.very sad state of affairs, but coursing hares is known to be carried out by many with other criminal records still the police do little
 
Saw a Subaru of coursers cruising the lane out front the other day, long dogs in back. They didn't stop as I went out front gate and just watched them. They do not have permission on the land around here. Opposite us is Crown estates farmland leased to local company who employ people to control the rabbits etc and the same company has the land behind us. I didn't have my specs on so didn't get the number. The land opposite change hands lease wise the other year but the previous farmer was frightened of the coursers had been threatened and I believe a building was torched after he intervened in their activities. Lincs Police were on Look North over this problem and they filmed a stop a search where they found coursers from the Liverpool area. It's a major problem in the county however phone the Police with numbers etc or whilst watching them in the act and if the Police turn up it will be hours or days later just to make sure they are gone.. The locals have now come to the conclusion despite what they show on Look North it's a waste of time and effort phoning the Police so all we can do is go out and watch them.

That tends to make the coursers uncomfortable and they usually move on. That's when there is one car however when they turn up in several vehicles then you stay inside. These are the serious offenders who are filming for the betting in the pubs and clubs. They will think nothing of killing or maiming anyone interfering. It was only a few years ago a farm worker was left paralysed after being mown down by a 4x4 driven by one of these scum bags. They drove it over his legs after knocking him down.
 
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