Experts warn
numbers are collapsing as 300,000 are killed for sport every year
Sun 5 May
2019 06.00 BST
The nation’s
deep affection for the hare, once a common sight in fields, is recorded in
prose, pub names and poetry. Writers including Shakespeare, Lewis Carroll and
Ted Hughes have paid tribute to the UK’s fastest land mammal, while any English
county will boast at least one pub with the word hare in its name. But now a
failure to revive numbers after a century of decline from an estimated four
million to under 800,000 has triggered moves to protect hares during their
breeding season.
Former
agriculture minister George Eustice is introducing a private member’s bill that
would make it illegal to shoot hares from February to September. “England and
Wales are among the few remaining European countries that do not have a modern
close season on shooting hares during their breeding season, which is a
terrible oversight,” Eustice said.
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