Born Free calls on Government to protect hares during breeding season
Take action today! You can help by asking your MP to support new legal protection.
Born Free is backing a Private Members Bill that would offer vital legal protection to hares in England and Wales, during their breeding season.
Hare numbers are in drastic decline in the UK; from as many as four million brown hares in 1880 to less than 600,000 today. Despite this, hares across England and Wales are shot for sport in huge numbers, with 300,000 or more killed every year on farmland and shooting estates.
In Scotland and across most of Europe, hares are protected against shooting and deliberate killing during their breeding season, which typically runs from February to September. However, in England and Wales hares enjoy no such legal protection and can be shot for sport all year round. Most shoots take place in February and March when females are already pregnant or nursing dependent young (leverets).
The shooting of hares during the breeding season results in the loss of breeding females and the death of leverets through starvation. Countless animals suffer and die as a consequence.
Chris Packham and Dr Mark Jones
On 26th March, Born Free’s Head of Policy, Dr Mark Jones, spoke at a parliamentary event at the House of Lords, where Baroness Arminka Helic promoted the Private Members Bill that she introduced, which, if it becomes law, would ban hare shooting in their breeding season.
Also attended by Animal Welfare Minister Baroness Sue Hayman, naturalist and broadcaster Chris Packham, the author of Raising Hare Chloe Dalton, and Born Free Youth Ambassadors Hector Bateman and Thea Caine, the high profile event aimed to explain the importance of this protection to Parliamentarians and encourage their support of the Bill.
Following the event, Dr Mark Jones said: “Seeing a spring hare sitting bolt upright or zig-zagging at speed across a field is a real treat. Sadly, hares in England and Wales are under ever-increasing pressure. Concerted action is urgently needed to protect these magical and mystical animals, not least from those who shoot them for ‘sport’ during their critical breeding season.
“As such, Born Free fully supports Baroness Helic’s Bill and urges Parliamentarians to recognise the clear and urgent need for action to protect hares across England and Wales in the same way they are protected in Scotland and across most of the rest of Europe.”
Thea Caine, Dr Mark Jones, Baroness Arminka Helic and Hector Bateman
Hector Bateman said: “Hares have been associated with the circle of life, renewal and immortality since ancient times. Sadly, their own mortality is under threat. Hares are supposed to be a priority species, but the current protection means that they are anything but a priority at the moment. With their numbers declining, and huge numbers of pregnant females and new mother hares shot for fun in springtime, they need help to survive. Whilst hare-coursing and hunting with dogs is illegal (although still responsible for the death of many hares), they are allowed to be shot all year round. I hope that Parliament supports Baroness Helic’s Bill for a closed hunting season, to allow hare numbers to renew and for their circle of life to complete safely through the important breeding season.”
Born Free is urging supporters in the UK to help increase parliamentary support for the Bill by writing to their local MPs, using a template letter to explain why hares so desperately need this protection, already afforded to other ‘game’ species.
Will you speak up for hares?
Without legal protection, the future is looking bleak for hares in the UK. Please, write to your MP, asking for a ‘close season’ for hares in their breeding season, to protect pregnant females from being shot and tiny leverets being left to starve.
It’s high time our precious hares enjoyed the protection they so desperately need.