Last weekend saw a convoy of up to 70 masked criminals descend upon rural Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire, driving scores of vehicles through fields killing hares and deer, causing thousands of pounds worth of damage to crops, setting fire to vehicles, and even attacking fire engines. But this is far from a unique event.
Cambridgeshire Police have stated that hare poaching events that officers have been called out to or made aware of have increased by 37% in the last two years. In Essex alone, 2024 saw 169 separate incidents of hare poaching.
In the past month, at least fourteen occasions of such criminal activity have been widely reported on, with arrests made and vehicles seized. As part of operations like Galileo and Whitebeam, poachers now face increased penalties and new offences, introduced by the Police, Crime Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 in response to Countryside Alliance campaigning.
But many consider the measures to not go far enough. Last weekend’s horrific activities in Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire saw rural residents cowering in their homes, powerless, as police were overwhelmed by the unprecedented scale of incident. The Sentencing Council has now opened a public consultation on sentences handed out for illegal activities related to hare poaching, which may help a move towards tougher punishments. The Countryside Alliance will be sharing our public response shortly.
This crime spree comes at a time when a recent Countryside Alliance survey found 73% of rural people consider countryside crime to have increased over the last year. Half of respondents thought that the police do not take rural crime seriously, and 57% of people who reported a crime were dissatisfied with the police response. In light of these concerns, the Countryside Alliance has recently responded to the National Police Chiefs’ Council consultation on their 2025-2028 Rural Crime Strategy, calling for hare poaching to remain a top priority for rural policing.