Police have said that illegal hare coursing has seen involvement of criminal gangs increase tenfold. Farmers and rural communities report gangs of individuals in balaclavas arriving in large numbers, unleashing greyhounds on hares and taking bets on the brutal bloodsport.
Investigation reveals scale of activity
An investigation by the BBC revealed the extent of the issue, highlighting the activity that was banned in 2005. Hare coursing involves using dogs, usually a greyhound or a lurcher, to catch and kill hares for betting and entertainment. Since the ban, crime gangs have continued the activity, with participants often dressed in military clothing and covering their faces with balaclavas. These gangs invade farmland, often smashing through in cars, and play for prizes of as much as £50,000 and the winning Super 8 Cup.
Farmer describes terrifying invasion
One Cambridgeshire farmer, Mathew Latta, last year experienced an invasion of hare coursing participants who drove through his farm and unleashed dogs onto the hares. He told the BBC that he was having lunch when he saw more than a dozen 4x4s heading towards his farm, with his iron gates cut open with an angle grinder. He said the fence of his family's garden was skirted and his crops uprooted as the cars tore through his fields, with more than 70 people eventually getting out of the cars while cheering and playing music.
"I would say this is 100% a properly organised coursing event, with competitors and competitive dogs," he said. "People watching the course - and watching and betting on that sport. It was quite terrifying." Once the crowd dispersed three hours later, four cars were left behind, one of which was burnt out. Latta said that he and his family were trapped, and that he kept calling the police, but nobody came.
Dead hares found in Hampshire
In previous cases in 2024, the bodies of dead hares and other animals were mysteriously dumped in two picturesque Hampshire locations. In one instance, children in Awbridge, Hampshire, found 20 hare and rabbit carcasses outside their school, as well as the beheaded body of a deer. Meanwhile, 50 dead hares were strewn near the entrance of Broughton's village shop, with a dead barn owl and kestrel tied to the door handle.
Organised betting and police response
In its investigation, the BBC obtained a video that shows a group of eight men drinking in a pub as they haggled over the price of the 2025 Super 8 Cup champion. Freedom of Information requests to police show there have been 9,000 reports of hare coursing over the past three years. Cambridgeshire Constabulary says it was "very stretched" on the day Latta's farm was invaded by gangs. Supt Ben Martin said that coursers had rampaged through the country deliberately to distract police. Chief Inspector Kevin Lacks-Kelly, head of the UK National Wildlife Crime Unit, told the BBC: "Some of these lads are making a fortune. You've got some of the country's best-organised criminals. They're like a small army."
