The brown hare is a declining UK mammal facing multiple pressures including agricultural intensification, hunting and disease. Monitoring population trends is essential for conservation and welfare management.
Hare welfare concerns centre on hunting stress, disease (notably European Brown Hare Syndrome, EBHS), and the impacts of agricultural practice on habitat quality. Hares are coursed despite the ban - convictions occur under the Hunting Act, but enforcement is resource-intensive. EBHS causes rapid death from haemorrhagic disease similar to rabbit RHDV. Individual hares caught by coursing dogs suffer acute trauma - many survive with significant injuries. The decline of the species itself is a welfare issue at the population level: fewer hares means reduced potential for flourishing lives within the species.