A Close Season For Hares Campaign By Conservatives Against Fox Hunting (CAFH) Humane Society International UK (HSI) And The Hare Preservation Trust (HPT) launched in Westminster in 2011.
Conservatives Against Fox Hunting and Humane Society International UK gave a joint presentation on the proposal for a close season for hares at the Associate Parliamentary Group For Animal Welfare – APGAW- on the 28th February 2012 in the House of Commons before MPs and approximately 30 animal welfare organisations.
The Parliamentary Hare Protection Event between Conservatives Against Fox Hunting and Humane Society International UK takes place in June in The House Of Commons, hosted by Three Cross Party MPs
Brown and mountain hares have suffered serious population declines in the UK, with figures for the brown hare showing a reduction of 80 percent in the last c
entury. The failure to meet a target to double numbers by 2010, set by the government in 1995, illustrates that more action is urgently needed to protect these vulnerable animals
POPULATION DECLINES AND ACTION PLANS from the fact sheet for the Parliamentary reception with the logos of CAFH, HSI and HPT
In 1880 numbers were said to be in the region of four million; two surveys carried out in the 1990s estimated the total hare population for Great Britain at 817,000-survey 1991-3) and later 753,000 (survey 1997-9).In 1995, the brown hare was included on the UK’s Biodiversity Action Plan, (UK BAP), “Short List of Globally Threatened/ Declining Species” along with eight other mammals, including the water vole, European otter,dormouse and red squirrel. These species were recognised as having declined by “25 to 49 percent in numbers/range in Great Britain in last 25 years”.
A Species Action Plan (SAP) was created for brown hares, and a target set to double the 1995 spring numbers by 2010. DEFRA confirmed, in June 2011, that this target had not been achieved. The Tracking Mammals Partnership (TMP) surveillance results reported that the ten year trend for brown hares, to 2007, showed ” no statistically significant change” in numbers.
LEVERET MORTALITY
A report for DEFRA, in 2004, noted that “Enhancing survival and particularly leveret juvenile hare) survival should be a specific target for conservation action.” Yet, each year, as hares are not afforded protection during the breeding period, many tens of thousands of dependent leverets are left to die when pregnant and nursing females are killed
Research has shown that by February 65 percent of sampled females were pregnant and by the end of the month 50 percent had given birth to their first litter and were lactating. A survein Scotland showed that in February 47 percent of female brown hares shot were pregnant; in September, it was 44 percent. It is estimated that at least 390,000 hares are shot in Britain each year, with hare shoots commonly organised in February & March. The same 2004 report for DEFRA stated “It could be argued that the introduction of a close season might be beneficial in terms of animal welfare through a reduction in culling of lactating females with dependent offspring.”
The recent introduction of the Wildlife and Natural Environment Act 2011 in Scotland makes it an offence to intentionally or recklessly kill, injure or take brown hares from 1 February to 30 September, and mountain hares from 1 March to 31 July..
Close seasons also exist throughout much of Europe, including Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Spain and Sweden, and Northern Ireland has had legislation in place since 1928..
EARLY DAY MOTION 2531
An Early Day Motion (EDM 2531), which calls on the government to protect hares during the breeding season, had attracted 146 signatures by June 2012
Humane Society International/UK, Conservatives Against Fox Hunting and Hare Preservation Trust are urging the Westminster government to provide much needed protection, without delay, to prevent the needless suffering of young hares, and to help the government meet its own conservation targets.
Help protect vulnerable hares — Urge your MP to sign EDM 2531
The hare population has suffered a serious decline the in UK, with an estimated 80 percent reduction in the last century.
A government target to double springtime numbers by 2010 failed to achieve its goal. And yet, because of a lack of protection during the breeding season, each year tens of thousands of dependent young hares are left to die a cruel death when their nursing mothers are killed.
Early Day Motion 2531 urges the government to introduce protection in England by setting a close season during this sensitive period.
http://e-activist.com/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=105&ea.campaign.id=13502 Contact Your MP to support tyhe EDM and a close season for hares here
http://www.hare-preservation-trust.co.uk/status.html The Hare Preservation Trust Website
