Brown Hare Welfare: Coursing, Agriculture, and Habitat Loss

Brown hares are iconic open-country mammals whose welfare is threatened by changing agricultural practices, legal and illegal coursing, and predator pressure. Their population has declined by 80% since the 1960s.

Key Facts

Brown hares (Lepus europaeus) have declined from approximately 4 million to fewer than 800,000 in the UK since the 1960s
Hare coursing — using dogs to chase hares — is legal with a licence in Ireland but banned in the UK since 2005
Illegal hare coursing continues across the UK — hares suffer exhaustion, injury, and death from dog attacks
Agricultural intensification has reduced the field margins, hedgerows, and set-aside habitat hares depend on
Leverets (young hares) are vulnerable to nest disturbance from silage cutting — mechanised farming increases mortality
Hares are not social animals and prefer large open fields — they rest in surface depressions called forms rather than burrows

Welfare Considerations

Brown hare welfare is shaped by both intentional persecution through coursing and structural habitat loss from agricultural change. Illegal coursing causes acute severe welfare harm — hares chased by lurchers experience extreme fear and exhaustion, and those caught suffer violent attack injuries including disembowelment. Prosecutions for illegal coursing are increasing but enforcement remains challenging in rural areas. Agricultural welfare harms are more diffuse but cumulatively significant: silage cutting before late June kills leverets that cannot escape machinery; pesticide reduction in field margins reduces food availability; and loss of uncultivated habitat reduces refuge cover. Higher-tier agri-environment schemes that maintain uncultivated field margins, delay silage cuts, and preserve hedgerows directly benefit hare populations and individual welfare. Game management including supplementary feeding and predator control on shooting estates has historically maintained some hare populations.

What You Can Do

Report illegal hare coursing to police rural crime teams — it is a serious wildlife offence
Support Hare Preservation Trust and similar organisations advocating for hare population recovery
If farming, consider agri-environment scheme participation to delay silage cuts and maintain field margins
Advocate for agricultural policies that protect uncultivated field margins as essential hare habitat