The brown hare is one of the UK's most iconic farmland mammals, whose welfare and survival depend on sympathetic agricultural management including spring cropping practices, hedgerow retention, and legal protection from hunting.
Brown hares face acute welfare risks from agricultural machinery during spring cultivation, when leverets hidden in fields are crushed or killed. Individual hares are also targeted by hare coursing, an illegal activity involving dogs that causes significant suffering through chase and injury. The loss of hedgerows and field margins deprives hares of shelter from weather and predators, increasing thermal stress and predation risk. Legal protection of hares during the breeding season and supportive land management are the foundations of hare welfare on farmland.