Intimidating tactics by hare coursers getting worse, farmer warns
Cases of illegal hare coursing are soaring according to the NFU
Farmers in Hampshire are speaking out about the intimidation they face from gangs of hare coursers running rampage across their land.
The hunting of the wild animals by dogs was made illegal in 2004 - but cases across the south are said to be rising significantly.
Vandals are smashing gates down and damaging fields by driving through them.
Hampshire farmer Alan did not want to be identified for fear of reprisals.
He said: "They will ram through 500-year-old hedges, they'll smash gates down and if you get in the way they will run at you as well.
"If you do catch them, then you're probably going to get intimidation.
"This is going on all the time, every day of the week someone is being blighted with this issue."
Ben Gibbons from the National Farmers Union (NFU) in Hampshire, said: "Hare coursing is a serious crime which puts people, animals and property at risk.
"We saw an increase in penalties and changes in legislation giving police further powers to deal with hare coursing, but it's ultimately intelligence which will help police make arrests.
Clive, who manages Moundsmere Estate near Basingstoke, said: "This criminal activity is really, really horrible.
"Once the crops have cleared, these people are out on our fields, and the accumulative damage from all these incidents is enormous.
"This by far the worst intensity of criminal activity we have seen and the other farm manager here says it is has not been this bad in his 40 years in the area.
"Every other night, in the early hours of the morning, they gain access to our fields by cutting our gates off and then drive across the fields, doing lots of damage.
"On 19 December at night, they pulled out an entire gate post, drove across our fields, and then went into our neighbour’s farm and destroyed his property.
"It’s not just our estate that is affected by them, all of the surrounding farms have experienced them as well, we just happen to be at the centre of it."
One particularly harrowing incident occurred one weekend at the estate where vandals entered a holiday cabin that is on their land in the early hours and woke up two women who were staying there.
Clive said: "They had head torches on and bizarrely said they were police before accusing the girls of trespassing and drinking.
"Thankfully, they left without any assault taking place but the girls’ car was parked about half a mile away and they took a gas bottle to their car and wrecked their doors and windows.
"We don’t know if it’s the same people doing it. We have CCTV footage from when they broke into the grounds of the property the other night but haven’t been able to identify them."