[shygirl]

we have a fair fews hares at ours, but very few rabbits. not sure if the lack of rabbits is due to being surrounded by a burn. hares are magnificent.

[waterbuffalofarmer]

They taste nice too, almost a gamy flavour compared with rabbit. A much nicer meat

[Porterlauren]

What exactly is the problem with hare coursing (apart from it being illegal)? I can't see how blasting one of natures finest athletes with a shotgun is somehow more acceptable than running one with a good long dog, in a fair test. . . . . . . .

P.S I know of LOTS of ground that has rabbits and hares feeding a long side each other!

[lord flynn]

What exactly is the problem with hare coursing (apart from it being illegal)? I can't see how blasting one of natures finest athletes with a shotgun is somehow more acceptable than running one with a good long dog, in a fair test. . . . . . . .

why do either? what harm are they doing anyone?


Had a young leveret in the garden last night-he was there while I was shutting up the ducks etc. By standing still, he came within a couple of feet from me-lovely creature. We don't seem to have rabbits around the house but there is a large warren at the farm across the valley which is only about .5 mile as the crow flies. Have always found it curious. We are a little more 'moor' though so maybe thats it.

[Porterlauren]

I'm not a fan really as they are one of my favourite animals. However, they do unfortunately act as an agricultural pest in some areas where they reach high levels.

[Penninehillbilly]

We have rabbits and hares about, but you never see them together, apart from the one time I was amazed to see a rabbit chase a hare off!
Beautiful creatures, magical somehow, couldn't shoot one, and don't know how anyone could watch them being chased + caught by dogs :-(.  There again there is a lot about human behaviour I don't understand, cruelty to a living creature, to cause suffering for ones own pleasure              

[oor wullie]

The white hares we get cause devistation with young trees.  Any tree under about 40cm tall gets the top nipped off.  The really annoying thing is they don't eat the tree just leave the top lying on the ground.  I must have had over 1000 trees damaged like this in the last 18 months.
I have shot 3 or 4 but it pains me to do it as they are such beautiful creatures and they get such a hard time. Quite a lot of estates in the highlands have conducted a genocide of hares, killing every last one for miles around to try and increase grouse numbers for shooting. 

[Porterlauren]

We have rabbits and hares about, but you never see them together, apart from the one time I was amazed to see a rabbit chase a hare off!
Beautiful creatures, magical somehow, couldn't shoot one, and don't know how anyone could watch them being chased + caught by dogs :-(.  There again there is a lot about human behaviour I don't understand, cruelty to a living creature, to cause suffering for ones own pleasure              

It's funny how different human minds see things differently.

For me the Hare is the greatest wild athlete of the British isles. . . . running one with a single good dog, with fair law, in winter, seems to me a very fair way of acquiring a Hare for the pot, for more so than shooting or snaring one (as is legal). They are born to run, as is the sighthound, and it seems a fair and natural contest, with the weakest, or oldest being culled out and the fittest getting away to perpetuate a healthy population.

It's a bit like saying. . . . I don't understand how someone could bring life into this world, just in order to kill it for their own pleasure. They don't NEED to eat meat, they choose to because they like the taste. . . . and so put their sheep through the yearly struggles of carrying and rearing lambs, only to steal them from their mothers at a young age and kill them for profit or a tasty dinner. . . . . it's obviously a stupid thing to say, but its one way of looking at it, and something that a worrying number of folk buy into.

I'm not sure how, when you boil it down, catching a wild animal with a dog is somehow massively taboo. . . . it's one of the oldest forms of feeding yourself and your family are pre dates farming by quite a long time!

[Penninehillbilly]

To catch animals for food is one thing, to set 2 dogs after one in the name of sport is something I can't understand.
I have shot rabbits for the pot, grey squirrels because they cause damage in the fruit cage and veg garden, if I had a rifle I would have venison.
Maybe if we had TOO many hares about I would think about food value, for now and the near future I prefer to shoot them with a camera 

[Steph Hen]

We have many brown hares. But don't see them as a pest. They live happily alongside plenty of rabbits, but range over a huge area and just don't hammer the crops in the same way. When they're all excited in spring they're cool to watch chasing and boxing, but about June they must be marking out territories or something and get so preoccupied with patrolling their routes around the field edges that if you stand still they'll come right up to about 2 meters away and pass on by without seeming to even see you! Even couple of people together, right in the open don't seem to put them off! [Between them, the otters and kingfishers, we could sell tickets!]

(No, I don't have any good photos, but I like this one taken from my car about February!)

[Jukes Mum]

I worry when I see too many hares around here, because I know that the poachers will notice them too. They are not nice guys at all and heaven forbid if you cross their paths! Fortunately the worst I see/hear of them is them f'ing and blinding and eventually wheel spinning off, usually leaving rubbish out of their cars. I know a lot of the beat keepers round here had very unpleasant run ins with them.
I am not talking about one handler putting his running dog on a hare over land he has permission on here. We don't get those!

[lord flynn]

I have shot 3 or 4 but it pains me to do it as they are such beautiful creatures and they get such a hard time. Quite a lot of estates in the highlands have conducted a genocide of hares, killing every last one for miles around to try and increase grouse numbers for shooting.

lets face it, they kill everything they perceive as doing shooting damage. Hands up, I do not understand shooting for anything other than the pot-organised shoots leave me cold and the few run ins I've had with shoots don't leave me well inclined towards the sort that do it. I do not see the appeal of blasting stuff for the hell of it. I did not appreciate the damage they can do to trees though.


Porterlauren, you do raise an interesting point. The rather romantic ideal of a lone hunter working hounds for the pot is one thing, the sort of hare coursing I witnessed when I was younger, quite another. I think its pitting animal against animal people find especially distasteful, even if it is natural to an extent.

[Steph Hen]

I love shooting! Hunting is a very primal thing, if you like it and get into it, incredibly satisfying. I don't think it's cruel in the way that something like bear or bull baiting would be..?
I used to really like working ferrets to rabbits, and have had the fortune to go out with both ferret and harris hawk, which was wonderful to watch.
Dog versus rabbits is quite something to watch. We like the hares, so don't control them. They are very odd animals.

I agree, the people who course hares seem to have plenty of dogs to out number the hares and seem to be a fairly rough crowd.

[waterbuffalofarmer]

The problem with some hunters is that sometimes they can be city boys who disregard property and livestock and who don't care where they shoot. Hunting for the pot is fine, and if you sell game for your business to city folk, game like pheasant and hare and all that, as long as its quick that's fine. I dont agree with killing animals for pleasure though. If you have to kill animals as pest control measures and to keep the hare or whatever game animals  population in check thats fine.

[Porterlauren]

I think a lot of your comments hit the nail on the head. . . . I hang my shame at some of the people who call themselves hunters or lurcher men. But of course, like anything else, you only really notice the ones making a lot of noise, a lot of fuss and doing things in a disrespectful manner.

Trust me, I loathe those people, far far far more than you lot do. Not only do they disgust me with their hunting practices and attitudes, but they obviously turn everyone against the likes of me!

However, for all of the idiots you see with a pile of dogs, a white van and a stinking attitude. . . . . there is a man like me, walking quietly, respecting his environment and quarry and using his dog to fill the pot.

But I do have to admit that I gain pleasure from doing my pest control, or from filling my pot. Is it from the killing? Of course not, that fills me with a huge sadness. . . . its from working in synergy with my dog, watching her do what comes natural, and taking part in something that is as primeval as it comes.

I can't explain it properly, but I don't think it makes me a bad person!