Shooting hares in England will be banned for most of the year as part of sweeping changes to animal welfare law. It’s currently legal to shoot the animals during their breeding season, with pregnant hares left to bleed out, and their young often orphaned as a result. Members of Parliament are also expected to announce the implementation of a ban on trail hunting, where hounds follow a scent rather than pursue a live animal. Campaigners have long said that the rules need to be tightened because foxes are often torn to shreds by dogs who are following an artificial fox scent and run into the path of a live animal. According to Nature Minister Mary Creagh, brown hares are a cherished part of the British countryside and it’s wrong that so many are shot during breeding season. She vowed to stop the decline of the animals. The new close season will ban hare hunting during the breeding months of February to October to protect mothers and their young. Every year, approximately 200,000 hares are killed in organized, commercial shoots during February and March, and this has a devastating impact on the orphaned young, which are left to starve to death.
