# Call for 'voluntary restraint' of Mountain Hare Massacre



## noushka05 (Mar 28, 2008)

How is this even legal? !!! Pointless call for ?voluntary restraint? on Scottish grouse moor mountain hare massacres | Raptor Persecution Scotland


----------



## lilythepink (Jul 24, 2013)

I can never really get my head around why people would want or feel the need to kill hares....yet we used to have horses and hounds hunting specifically for hare.

The local gypsies go hare coursing and are persecuted ( and rightly so) by the SSPCA and Police...so what is the difference with that and this?

I was out on New Years Eve and came back around 12.30am and saw a huge hare in a field on my way back....must have startled it a bit with the headlights...the hare was lovely to see.

I have no objections to one for the pot...but this is disgusting.


----------



## rona (Aug 18, 2011)

It's over 12000 acres isn't it?

That's one Hare every 8 acres.

Mountain hare - Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust


----------



## rona (Aug 18, 2011)

Mountain hares | Ecological Sciences | Research | The James Hutton Institute

According to this there can be anything up to 200 hares per square kilometre

That 247 acres, so nearly 1 hare per acre.

http://www.snh.org.uk/pdfs/publications/commissioned_reports/287.pdf
A bit out of date

They have a population explosion every 10 years or so according to many studies. Maybe this was one of those years

http://scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk/docs/002_293__mountainharepositionstatment_1389006226.pdf


----------



## rona (Aug 18, 2011)

Joint initiative urges restraint in culling of mountain hares - News / Farming / Business / The Courier

A joint initiative aimed at suspending large-scale culls of mountain hares has been launched.

Working together, Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) Scottish Land and Estates (SLE) and the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) aim to ensure future management is sustainable.

News


----------



## noushka05 (Mar 28, 2008)

Grouse moors are slaughtering hare to protect their vested interests & dumping their bodies to rot. And you try to excuse this just like you do raptor persecution 

I KNOW these people who kill so readily have no reverence for life - but where is yours?:frown2:


----------



## LaceWing (Mar 18, 2014)

Usually when people are asked to volunteer to do the right thing, or legal thing, it is a precursor to either enforcing the laws or bringing in new laws. Basically, they are saying, either do it on your own, or we will start arresting you, or fining you. Without natural predators, fast breeding animals such as lagomorphs can decimate an area.

In the U.S., you can kill nuisance animals at any time if they are on your property. This would include coyotes, skunks, opossums, raccoons, poisonous snakes. Rabbits must be hunted in season, but they aren&#8217;t a nuisance since they tend to be in areas with the aforementioned critters, as well as nonpoisonous snakes. Without natural predators of hares, they really have to be killed by humans. I don&#8217;t understand why they either aren&#8217;t put in season for hunters to hunt (really for sport) for food. I don&#8217;t understand why anyone would kill them in high numbers without using them as a food source, even if for dog food.


----------



## Old Shep (Oct 17, 2010)

I'm not aware of hares being a nuisance to farmers in the UK, but they are shot.

The reason hare coursers are prosecuted while shooting hares remains legal is because the "fox hunting" law in Scotland is actually a law against chasing and killing mammals by dogs. It covers all mammals, and if my memory serves me well, there must be dogs (plural) and that this wording was to specifically exempt dog owners who's individual dog happened to come accross a deer, or hare, or rabbit and chase it. That's not breaking the law. Not in Scotland anyway.


----------

