Alliance call for action after shocking footage emerges of large illegal hare poaching event

Footage of a large illegal hare poaching event has led to further calls for the Government to urgently clamp down on the activity.

A video, which appeared on twitter, shows several vehicles frantically zig-zagging over a farmer's field, while passengers lean out of car windows filming two lurcher-type dogs chasing a hare.

Some shocking footage has emerged of illegal hare-coursing in Bedfordshire this week pic.twitter.com/MCFkQPMdAw

— Johann Tasker (@johanntasker) November 12, 2021

About 100 men were allegedly in attendance, with footage showing attendees cheering and trampling over an emerging cereal crop.

Dozens of people travelled to Bedfordshire to take part in the illegal events on Wednesday 10 November.

Another video on social media shows Transit vans and 4x4S being driven through Bedford tow centre. Occupants allegedly sat on the roofs, hanging out of windows brandishing dead hares.

The local National Farmers Union (NFU) said Bedfordshire Police were out using body cameras to record the incidents during the day, but due to sheer volume of people in attendance found it difficult to intervene.

The incident has led to calls from the Countryside Alliance for urgent action from the Government.

Rural groups were recently left disappointed after proposals to give police and the courts more powers to disrupt hare coursing were rejected in parliament.

The suggested amendments to a new crime bill under consideration by the government tabled by the Lord Bishop of St Albans, sought to increase penalties for hare coursing, allow the courts to disqualify offenders from owning or keeping dogs, and allow the police to recover kennelling costs for dogs that have been seized.

Tim Bonner, the Alliance's Chief Executive said: " This shocking footage shows what many farmers have to put up with on a regular basis. Poachers in powerful four-wheel drive vehicles, smash down gates, drive through crops and hedges to run their dogs on hares in competition with one another."

"The Government have said they want to clamp down on this scourge, but nothing appears to have changed. A recent attempt in the House of Lords to amend the Police Bill would have meant tougher penalties for those committing this crime. Sadly, the government did not accept this amendment and the issue has once again been put on the back burner.

"This footage reinforces the scale of the problem we are dealing with in the countryside. The time for robust action is now."

Illegal hare poaching is a blight on rural communities. It involves the pursuit of wild hares by trained greyhounds or lurchers across bare fields, often carried out by organised criminal gangs. Large sums of money are gambled online on which dogs will catch the hare first.

The "season" typically gets under way after harvest, when poachers take advantage of bare fields. This can causes thousands of pounds worth of damage to land and crops, and sees many farmers and landowners intimidated.

The Countryside Alliance has long campaigned, alongside other rural organisations, for reforms to the law to strengthen the powers of the police and courts.