NFU demands coordinated crackdown on hare coursing gangs

The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) has called for a coordinated criminal justice response to hare coursing, warning that gangs chasing illegal bets are pushing beyond the traditional eastern England hotspots into the West Midlands and South Wales. Vice-president Robyn Munt said members are being left to dread the next incursion as coursers trespass on farmland, wreck crops and intimidate the families who live there.

Why is the NFU demanding action now?

Writing after National Rural Crime Action Week, Ms Munt said hare coursing “continues to plague” NFU members, and that the fear reaches beyond business damage because many farms are also family homes.

“Too often, farmers are left looking over their shoulders, anticipating and dreading the next incident,” she said. “To put a stop to this crime, we must see the police and wider criminal justice system use the powers available to them fully and consistently.”

Farmers, she added, need “a clear and coordinated response”, from greater collaboration between police forces to stronger engagement with local community networks, so that offenders “face meaningful consequences”.

The Kent discovery behind the call

The union’s intervention follows a BBC investigation, reported by Farmers Weekly on 17 September, which found 22 dead hares laid out in rows on an east Kent farm. The display is believed to have been left by coursers as a trophy record for online betting syndicates.

The farmer involved told the BBC that hare numbers on her land have fallen by about 80% in 10 years. Police data gathered for the investigation shows nearly 9,000 hare coursing reports across the country over the past three years, and successful coursing dogs are said to change hands for up to £25,000. One Kent NFU representative was threatened with being shot after challenging coursers, Farmers Weekly reports.

What powers do the police already have?

Hare coursing has been illegal since 2005 under the Hunting Act 2004, and coursers are also prosecuted under the Game Act 1831 and the Night Poaching Act 1828. The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022, which followed years of lobbying by the NFU and rural organisations, added two offences built for the modern crime: trespassing with intent to search for or pursue hares with dogs, and being equipped to do so.

Both carry up to six months’ custody and an unlimited fine, and the courts can also disqualify offenders from owning or keeping dogs and order them to repay the kennelling costs of dogs seized by police. A Sentencing Council guideline for hare coursing offences came into force on 1 June 2026. The union’s argument is that the framework now exists; what has been missing is full and consistent use of it.

The call also lands days after Defra confirmed £530,000 for the National Wildlife Crime Unit this financial year to strengthen intelligence and financial investigation work against coursing gangs.

What happens next

The peak coursing season is under way: gangs favour the weeks after harvest, when stubble fields give dogs a clear run at hares. Forces in the worst-hit counties are mounting autumn operations, and in Hampshire five trained volunteer drone pilots can now be called out by the force control room to support live coursing and poaching incidents, believed to be the first scheme of its kind in the country.

The NFU is pressing for that kind of collaboration to spread force to force through the winter. Anyone who sees coursing in progress should call 999; earlier incidents can be reported on 101 or to local rural crime teams, and keepers and land managers can help by logging vehicle registrations and blocking gateways onto vulnerable stubbles.