Hare Coursing t

oxfordfowler

Well-Known Member
Well as it was a nice morning today 05:30 found me sat expectantly it my newly erected high seat. Saw 2 Roe Does but not the anticipated Buck or Fox. Time was moving on and breakfast was calling when through the hedge the far end of the field appears a figure holding a dog. Then 2 more figures and another dog. So on the phone to the landowner who is now on his way to me and has phoned the police. Bit of a shock to them finding a guy walking across the field towards them armed and carrying a big stick (quad pod) Anyway by now I am walking across the field with the 3 guys. Turns out they have travelled up from South Wales to walk the dogs.

Oops big finger syndrome hit wrong button on phone trying to load photo
 
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That was always the excuse when they were caught on Salisbury Plain.
From Wales 'on their way to a show near London your honour and it's not fair to keep the dogs in the boot for so long so decided to let them stretch their legs your honour'
The dozy 'Your Honour' accepted that excuse nearly every time.
 
014.jpgThese are my new Welch friends from this morning. I do have other photo's but they will not upload. Reported to the Police along with the reg No. of their silver and black Mitsubishi pick up. The picture shows them trying to depart trouble was they headed for a deep ditch so the older guy (in green) could not get across, they had to walk back across the field to the gate and track (car was parked at the far end). The old guy was wearing a pair of trainers which were not much use in the mud plus he kept complaining that the mud had made his false leg hurt ?. Not sure if the Police caught up with them as I suspect finding a patrol car in rural Oxon at 08:00 am on a bank holiday Sunday would be very tricky indeed.

And those of you that have or may find yourself in this situation I made damn sure that they knew the 243 was unloaded and I made sure that everything that passed between us was as amicable as possible. Although when the landowner caught up with them on the track the conversation was a little more "Anglo Saxon".
 
You sound lucky to have met some relatively nice coursers, around us on the North Wessex Downs we get some right nasty b******s, the sort that have no qualms trying to ram you to get out of a field, drive through livestock fences and hedges, steal anything worth taking and corse anything they see. It makes me sick that these scum think they have the right to do anything they want.
Sorry rant over.
 
Yes, it's certainly that time of year again.

I spoke to the farm workers the other day as they were about to move off. Set up in field, could still hear combines driving away when 2 vehicles pulled into field beside me and started coursing in view of the farmers, albeit the rear of the combines and beside a busy country lane. It amazes me just how brazen they are. The police however were interested when I explained that at least 6 guys, 2 dogs, which by then were chasing a hare in the field I was in, whilst one of the vehicles started hacking up one of the fields, must have been doing 30-40mph, so clearly wasn't worried about the vehicle. To be honest I wasn't to happy being in the same field as them but thankfully they cleared off when they eventually spotted me, which took them several minutes to do. So they clearly wasn't overly observant. I certainly wasn't going to hang about to confront them, so if you spoke to them, nice or not your still a braver man than me.
 
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We certainly appear to attract a better breed of coursers in Oxfordshire !!!!. However at the time I did have reservations and approached them with a good deal of trepidation. It did cross my mind "shoot the dogs or burning their car" but as I am law abiding not my way. Had it been a bigger group or the ones that drive all over the fields I would not have done what I did. It was obvious from the reaction when they spotted me that they did not wish to meet. Not sure how I knew (some kind of sixth sense) that I would be OK. I got to about 20 yards away from the older guy, who could not walk very well over the muddy field, and told him that they were not welcome that they were to leave and that the Police and landowner were on there way. We then had a discussion about coming from Wales to walk the dogs, coming here for years, not doing any harm, not known to the police, never have a problem around Lambourne ect ect.

I did make sure that I kept at a distance from them, just in case, as we walked across the field back to the track and I was very pleased to see the landowner arrive.

On reflection I am not sure that I will be repeating my actions should a similar situation occur in the future. But what do you do the situation just happened. On the plus side I've scored loads of brownie points with the landowner.
 
It happens continually around here, they come from all over. The police say it's very hard to prove that they are coursing, the only way to hurt them hard is to confiscate their dogs. Another way would be to charge them with criminal damage for driving over crops but again the Law are a little reticent, probably because they could move their "No fixed abode" the next day. A young,hard, friend of mine tackled them once but ended up flattening a couple with a shovel and legging it. Lucky for him he had a mask on and covered his number plate, but they looked for him for a long while. It isn't worth getting involved,my advice now is to head in the opposite direction, but 20 years ago I would have been in there head first.
 
When I grew up down in Oxfordshire in the 1980's was a constant problem with dog men coming out of London. Several of the dogs got too close to sheep and ran into lead fences.

Nowadays i I would keep out of site. Record as much video as you can on iPhone and call the police. Get to know your wildlife crime unit and provide them with evidence to prosecute. Hare coursing is illegal, so is trespass. So spect they have knives and firearms on them as well.
 
This relates to poaching offences and not coursing.

The enemy always quote the huge numbers of prosecutions under the HA since 2005...99%+ of which relate to poaching hares with running dogs, and which has nothing to do with the noble sport of coursing.

I deeply miss organised coursing under NCC rules with landowners permission, having had a 25% stake in a rather successful dog in my time; perhaps the biggest travesty of the Hunting Act 2004 was that everyone connected with a day's organised coursing became a potential criminal [coursing which of course favoured the quarry species and saw them flourish where there was a keen interest]. But politicians never really let facts get in the way.



This is why the cozzers like to use the HA as opposed to the ancient Game Acts etc.; the HA gives the power to seize anything and everything to do with the alleged offence [which by the way, an officer can do having reasonable suspicion that an offence is about, is, or has taken place]...so it means the vehicles are lifted and crushed and the dogs confiscated [put down by the aRSePCA usually]...certainly more of a deterrant than a few hundred quid of a fine.

If landowners continue to suffer hare poaching, then the hares will need to go...no hares, no poaching, no problem. And another victory for those opposed to hunting sports when they lump legitimate sportsman in with itinerant poachers, and seek to protect an otherwise locally abundant game species
 
As is trespass.

Just so everyone is clear, "simple" trespass is not illegal therefore not a criminal matter (a crime) and is not a police matter, however "armed" trespass or aggravated trespass is a criminal matter that the police are obliged to investigate. Note; an investigation can simply be logging the call!
 
Just so everyone is clear, "simple" trespass is not illegal therefore not a criminal matter (a crime) and is not a police matter, however "armed" trespass or aggravated trespass is a criminal matter that the police are obliged to investigate. Note; an investigation can simply be logging the call!

There is more chance of securing a conviction for hunting illegally under the Hunting Act 2004; trying to secure a conviction for Aggravated Trespass under the Criminal Justice Act [passed to deal with hunt saboteurs, ironically] is much more tortuous, which is why cozzers don't like using it...keeping it simple helps them tick boxes
 
There is more chance of securing a conviction for hunting illegally under the Hunting Act 2004; trying to secure a conviction for Aggravated Trespass under the Criminal Justice Act [passed to deal with hunt saboteurs, ironically] is much more tortuous, which is why cozzers don't like using it...keeping it simple helps them tick boxes

Definitely, however that is not an easy offence to prove either. Prosecutions are very low, with even lower successful prosecutions and very very few outside of the fox hunting horsey scene. The "honest travelling folk" are very rarely held to account.
 
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