Shooting hares to be banned for 9 months of the year.

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I would like to know how BASC and other shooting organisations are going to counter this proposal?
There was a recent BBC Nature series and one of them was on Hares. Despite being on a estate with a prolific hare population they were unable to get any footage of leverets and the doe feeding them. They were using thermal drones to spot but no success.
D
 
I have just done a search for UK Hare population data. It is very sparse and what is available is decades old.
In my experienc of shooting the same ground for now on 30 + yrs hares are now abundant and rabbits are scarce. This year I saw hares on one particular farm for the first time. I saw 2 one night on the thermal.
Night time thermal survey would be the only way to accurately assess hares nos.
In fact thermal drone would be an ideal tool.
The government needs to be robustly challenged on the scientific data basis for this proposal.
D
 
Cyres said:
I have just done a search for UK Hare population data. It is very sparse and what is available is decades old.
In my experienc of shooting the same ground for now on 30 + yrs hares are now abundant and rabbits are scarce. This year I saw hares on one particular farm for the first time. I saw 2 one night on the thermal.
Night time thermal survey would be the only way to accurately assess hares nos.
In fact thermal drone would be an ideal tool.
The government needs to be robustly challenged on the scientific data basis for this proposal.
D
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From my own personal experience, I see many many more hares than rabbits on my grounds - Peak District.
 
Heym SR20 said:
Hares can cause huge damage to both young planted trees and commercial crops, especially row cropped vegetables. They are also very good eating.

Hare coursing is a challenge in some areas. There is plenty of existing legislation to prosecute illegal coursing, starting with basic poaching, then hunting with dogs, and thats before you start looking at the actual individuals and what else they are up to.

my Brother in laws sister in a sgt in Hampshire Police Force, involved in rural policing. Her biggest challenge is actually having police to deal with incidents. When she started with the force there were 8,000 police in service, there are now 3,000. She simply does not have enough police to respond ti incidents as she has not a way to make them be in three places at once.
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Worth pointing out the cuts to the Police, the NHS and the Military were all under a conservative government.
 
If it's a conservative measure, it's a bit late, Hare numbers seem to be increasing but that's subjective, little good data about.

Welfare, we already ban the sale of hares in the summer. Other species of birds Mammals can legally be killed in the breeding season, so expect more species to be added on it's Parliamentary journey.

I suppose this is all the result of our MP having little productive work to attend to.
 
cjm1066 said:
Welfare, we already ban the sale of hares in the summer.
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Here's Tory George Eustice's (former Minister for DEFRA) comments:

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Shooting hares in England to be banned for most of the year | Rt Hon George Eustice | 32 comments

The first principle of conservation is to protect species during their breeding season so it is excellent news that the Government plans to create a modern close season on the shooting of hares. Every year approximately 200,000 hares are killed in organised, commercial shoots during February...
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The first principle of conservation is to protect species during their breeding season so it is excellent news that the Government plans to create a modern close season on the shooting of hares.

Every year approximately 200,000 hares are killed in organised, commercial shoots during February and March and this has a devastating impact on the orphaned leverets which are left to starve to death. It is therefore a serious animal welfare concern as well as a conservation issue.

The reason the activity mainly occurs in February and March is that it gives some commercial shoots an extra two months of income after the pheasant shooting season ends. It is important to note that a majority of shoots already voluntarily refrain from the activity but a legal change is needed to deal with the rest.

Even the Victorians recognised the need for a close season through the Hares Preservation Act of 1892 to end what the Bill described as "the inconsiderate slaughter" of hares during their breeding season. However, the Victorian law was based on a ban on sales so no longer works and is no longer enforced even though it technically remains in place.

The hare population at the time of the 1892 Act is thought to have been around 4 million. Today it is down to about 600,000-700,000 so it is certainly time to take action. I had made multiple attempts to change the law while an MP and Minister but could never secure support from other parts of government to prioritise the change. The current government deserves credit if they finally get this important change done.
 
Hares are not damaging grazing , this is obvious if a person takes the time to watch ! What a hare does is after each bite is take another bound or more then takes the next bite . Rabbits ? totally different they eat in one spot till its bald and it wont grow back.
The Hare is in a period of decline and unlike the Rabbit - It is not Vermin ( though it can kill a lot of unprotected new sapling trees)
For the above and more I stopped shooting Hares unless its 1. Going to be used ( for more than say trap baits for fox etc ) 2, its in season and will be eaten . Hares ain't really sporting when rifles are used . Its also a creature that has always been around in the UK countryside
 
So no mention of the huge loss of habitat since the victoriana era, could that not be a contributing factor to any so caled decline? It sickens me that a government is happy, in fact ecstatic to concrete over vast swathes of our countryside, destroying valuable wildlife habitat just to meet some crazy housing figures, this will have a far greater impact on Hare populations in the long term.

Most shooters I know will either take no Hares at all or perhaps 1 or 2 a year for a special meal. We already self regulate.
 
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