Brown hares face significant welfare pressures from legal and illegal hunting, viral hemorrhagic disease, and agricultural intensification that has halved populations since the 1960s.
Hare coursing, both legal and illegal, subjects hares to predator pursuit stress that may end in killing or injury by the coursing dogs. Even escaped hares may die from stress-induced capture myopathy — muscle damage and organ failure from extreme exertion and fear. Illegal coursing gangs cause significant rural welfare and crime concerns. Agricultural machinery kills leverets during spring and summer operations. EBHS causes hemorrhagic disease with internal bleeding. Each of these welfare harms occurs to a species whose population has already declined catastrophically.