Gangs, violence and dumped dead animals: The hidden world of illegal hare hunts

On a distant Cambridgeshire farm, wherever his nearest neighbour is fractional a mile away, Mathew Latta was making luncheon erstwhile the bid was shattered by the dependable of large exhausts.

Latta ran to the model to spot a convoy of much than a twelve 4x4s heading towards his farm. His robust gates were chopped unfastened with an space grinder and factual blocks were shifted retired of the mode to wide the convoy's path.

The vehicles drove close implicit his fields astatine speed, tearing up the crops and skirting the obstruction by the family's garden. Then much than 70 radical got retired of the vehicles, men dressed successful subject fatigues and balaclavas, cheering and playing music.

Dogs were brought retired connected leads and began to hunt hares.

"They were each stood up connected their cars with binoculars," says Latta. "I would accidental this is 100% a decently organised coursing event, with competitors and competitory dogs. People watching the people - and watching and betting connected that sport. It was rather terrifying."

Warning: This communicative contains images of dormant animals

Latta and his household were trapped successful their home. They kept calling the police, but cipher came. His daughter, past aged seven, was terrified and kept asking: "Are these men gonna travel inside, daddy?"

More than 3 hours later, the bloodsport was yet implicit and the assemblage dispersed. They near down 4 cars, 1 of them a burnt-out wreck. It emerged that, earlier that day, the convoy had rampaged done an country 20 miles (32km) agelong successful the county, forcing different cars disconnected the roadworthy and adjacent robbing a petrol station.

This is the modern world of hare coursing. It is an past athletics wherever dogs specified arsenic greyhounds oregon lurchers are utilized to hunt hares, which the coursers usually scare retired from the wild. Points are awarded for the fig of times the dogs unit the hare to twist and crook arsenic it runs - arsenic good arsenic for the kill.

The athletics reached a highest of popularity successful the 19th Century, but went underground aft it was banned successful the UK successful 2005.

We began investigating this underworld for the BBC Radio 4 podcast Dead Rabbit aft the bodies of dormant hares and different animals were mysteriously dumped successful 2 picturesque Hampshire villages successful 2024.

In Awbridge, much than 20 carcasses - mostly hares and rabbits, on with a muntjac cervid with a severed caput - were strewn extracurricular a superior school. Children were successful tears erstwhile they arrived for lessons and recovered a horror-movie scene.

About 7 miles north, successful Broughton, astir 50 hares were scattered adjacent the entranceway of the village's assemblage shop, with humor smeared connected the doors and a dormant barn owl and kestrel tied to the doorway handles.

What our probe recovered was a hidden satellite of highly organised amerciable bloodsport events taking spot successful agrarian areas, often by lamplight successful the dormant of night, with trophies, large wealth prizes, invaluable hunting dogs and sometimes adjacent planetary gambling.

And it is each kept concealed by organised transgression gangs utilizing intimidation and violence.

There person been astir 9,000 reports of hare coursing crossed the UK successful the past 3 years, according to constabulary responses to Freedom of Information Act requests by the BBC.

The figures are not definitive - immoderate incidents whitethorn person been reported much than once, portion others whitethorn not person been reported astatine each - but successful the lack of authoritative transgression figures for amerciable hare coursing, they springiness america an denotation of the standard of the problem.

Cambridgeshire Constabulary says it was "very stretched" connected the January time past twelvemonth erstwhile Mathew Latta's workplace was invaded, and the unit says it did not respond the mode it would person wanted. Supt Ben Martin tells america that the coursers had rampaged done the region deliberately, to distract constabulary and nonstop them to the incorrect places.

Having been caught out, the unit stepped up its efforts to analyse who was down the amerciable event, yet arresting much than 40 radical and charging 25, respective of whom person present been convicted.

As officers tracked down the coursers, it turned retired they had travel from each implicit the country: Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Berkshire, northbound Wales. "People had travel hundreds of miles to beryllium determination that day," says Martin. "It was a due operation."

Then, aft searching an code belonging to 1 of the arrested men, constabulary recovered the trophy the coursers had been competing for - the Super 8 Cup, etched with images of dogs and hares, lasting possibly 2ft (61cm) tall, astir the size of the FA Cup.

The penetration of Latta's workplace had been a item of the amerciable hare coursing calendar, a recurring cupful contention whose erstwhile winners are engraved connected the basal of the trophy - some the owners and the dogs, which had names specified arsenic "Beyoncé" and "Bunny".

A country aft the cupful last past year, captured connected video obtained by the BBC, shows however hare coursing involves superior money. A radical of 8 men tin beryllium seen drinking pints successful a pub and shouting, arsenic they haggle implicit a lurcher lasting connected the array earlier them. The canine was the Super 8 Cup champion of 2025 and sold for £55,000.

It is not the lone grounds of the currency that flows done the amerciable bloodsport: we were told the Super 8 Cup prize was astir £50,000, portion the introduction interest for the contention was £1,000, arsenic revealed by a seized telephone belonging to 1 of the kingpins. Police accidental this currency funds the prize wealth and covers expenses, specified arsenic a excavation of vehicles and adjacent tribunal costs successful lawsuit the hare coursers are raided.

Ch Insp Kevin Lacks-Kelly, caput of the UK National Wildlife Crime Unit, tells the BBC that wealth had besides flowed into the amerciable athletics done livestreams for gamblers successful China connected 1 oregon 2 occasions. But helium says the gangs successful the UK did not request overseas bets to money their illicit hobby.

Hare coursers were linked to crimes involving important sums of money, says Lacks-Kelly, not "minimum-wage crimes". "Some of these lads are making a fortune. You've got immoderate of the country's champion organised criminals," helium adds.

There are immoderate localised events that inactive conscionable impact a fistful of men and dogs, Lacks-Kelly says, but the level of organisation successful bigger events "has accrued tenfold" with the influx of organised crime.

"They've got the vantage successful numbers. And they volition spell anyplace and bash thing and perpetrate this transgression astatine each costs," helium says.

"They're similar a tiny army, conscionable bash what they want, don't they? Turn up en masse, artifact roads off, thrust implicit fields, origin damage, dump the cars, pain the cars out. Mass information events that are designed to overwhelm."

Lacks-Kelly says his squad has homed successful connected 27 of the country's worst offenders for hare coursing and each but 5 of them person links to organised crime.

"These are convulsive criminals that maltreatment people, animals, women. Carry weapons, firearms, and marque threats. These are not the radical that you privation successful your community," helium says.

The BBC contacted members of the Country Land and Business Association, which represents 30,000 agrarian landowners and businesses successful England and Wales, to inquire astir their experiences with hare coursing.

About 50 responded, astir each of them saying their onshore oregon spot had been damaged. Someone successful Cheshire said it happened each week, a husbandman successful Essex said it had happened much than 100 times, portion 1 successful North Yorkshire said 150 times.

And 29 of the respondents said they had been threatened with violence.

According to the survey responses, hare coursers had threatened to kidnap farmers' dogs, shouted that they would pain their buildings down, had thrown bricks done windows, made anonymous telephone threats to stab them successful the neck, utilized catapults to occurrence ball-bearings astatine them, rammed and damaged vehicles with radical inside, and warned the farmers that they knew wherever they lived and wherever their kids spell to school.

Wiltshire husbandman David Lemon showed america his 3,000-acre farm, wherever hare coursers person antecedently torn up the fields with miles of tyre tracks. He has tried to fortify the land, closing disconnected gateways, putting successful factual blocks oregon piles of logs, and digging rows of heavy ditches to marque it undrivable. But they inactive get successful and, erstwhile helium has tried to face them, helium has been threatened.

In his vast, isolated farm, a confrontation astatine nighttime means "no-one's gonna perceive you scream", helium says.

"First happening you spot is simply a look with a balaclava on, with a catapult successful his manus with shot bearings in," helium says. "That's 1 oculus gone. And is it worthy the struggle?"

He fears that idiosyncratic volition get killed earlier agelong - either due to the fact that a husbandman overreacts to the intrusion oregon the hare coursers instrumentality their intimidation tactics excessively far.

"You get reddish mist erstwhile you spot them trashing your years' enactment and this is each you've got. And they're conscionable trashing it," says Lemon. "This is not fair. You can't beryllium hostage successful your ain home. This is our farm. This is our home."

Elsewhere successful the county, a pistillate who called constabulary connected hare coursers astatine her father's workplace received rape threats connected societal media arsenic a result, according to Wiltshire Police and Crime Commissioner Phillip Wilkinson.

One gamekeeper was tally implicit and severely injured erstwhile helium tried to face hare coursers connected onshore helium managed, says Tim Weston from the National Gamekeepers' Organisation.

"He broke some his legs, pelvis, ruptured lungs." Weston says. "They near astatine precocious speed, perchance could person near him for dead." Fortunately, the antheral is present backmost and enactment and recovering, helium said.

As we talked, it turned retired that Weston, who is present based successful Wiltshire, grew up successful a colony adjacent Broughton successful Hampshire, wherever the animals were dumped extracurricular the shop. In 2024, helium was moving successful cervid absorption connected an property wherever helium suspects the dormant hares had been killed.

The nighttime earlier they were dumped, determination had been instrumentality marks crossed the estate, helium says. The section gamekeeper had stopped the hare coursers 3 oregon 4 times.

Weston says the abandoned animals were a connection to say: "We've been. You didn't drawback america this time."

Using dormant animals to taunt landowners is common, Weston says. In our survey of farmers and landowners, 35 of the respondents said carnal bodies had been deliberately near connected their land.

It is simply a connection to the section assemblage that "we tin bash what we privation due to the fact that no-one's going to constabulary it", Weston says.

Hampshire Police did apprehension a antheral implicit the dumped animals astatine Broughton assemblage shop, however. The unit commissioned a forensic investigation of the dormant kestrel and barn owl near connected the doors and took DNA samples. James Kempster, a antheral who constabulary accidental had a anterior grounds of wildlife crimes, was arrested arsenic a result.

At trial, Kempster denied helium had abandoned the animals. CCTV footage of 2 men casually tossing dozens of dormant hares extracurricular the store - 1 of them ripping 1 of the bodies successful fractional to smear its humor astir - were not wide capable to uncover their identities.

Kempster was convicted of handling the dormant birds, a transgression successful itself due to the fact that they are protected species. But helium was recovered not blameworthy of transgression harm - the complaint that related to abandoning the carcasses.

So was the incidental truly a informing oregon a taunt to the section assemblage from hare coursers? With the perpetrators inactive unidentified, their motive cannot beryllium known for certain.

One constabulary serviceman recalls an statement of dormant animals' whose connection seemed undeniable, however. He tells america however helium had sometimes recovered bodies strung implicit velocity bounds signs and thoroughfare furnishings successful villages oregon near extracurricular people's houses.

Once, helium says, helium had seen them laid retired successful the road, the corpses spelling retired the words: "Catch me".