APGAW Members Conservatives Against Foxhunting and Humane Society International recently brought the problem of the lack of protection for pregnant and nursing hares and their dependent young to the attention of APGAW's chairman, Neil Parish.
There has been a serious decline in the number of hares in the UK, with surveys showing that the brown hare has declined by more than 80 percent during the past 100 years and in some parts of Britain, such as the south-west, it may even be locally extinct.
Other game species are provided with close seasons during the sensitive breeding period but, as this protection is not afforded to hares, many thousands of leverets can be abandoned and left to die each year.
APGAW feels that the protection afforded to hares is woefully inadequate and needs to be increased and wrote the following letter to the Minister;
