Hare coursing - setting dogs to chase hares - is illegal in England and Wales but continues illegally, causing significant welfare harm to hares through injury, stress, and death.
Hare coursing causes acute welfare harm through the terror of pursuit and the injury or death that often follows capture. Even hares that escape may sustain injuries from dogs or experience such extreme physiological stress response that they die of capture myopathy - a condition where muscle breakdown during extreme exertion causes organ failure hours later. The illegal nature of coursing in England means it occurs without oversight, increasing the likelihood of severe outcomes. Northern Ireland legal coursing uses muzzled dogs but still causes significant distress to the hare.