A letter sent to The Times by Sir Jim Paice.
Three days ago I watched four hares in my 7 acre paddock in front of my house being ‘mad march hares’. Baroness Helic is correct (Thunderer 25th March) that they are one of the most evocative symbols of the English Countryside.
However, the mere fact that they were there shows that it is wrong to suggest that they are under a general threat. Like many species, their numbers vary from place to place. In the parts of the country where grassland is the main land use they are scarce because that is not their natural habitat whereas in much of the arable East Anglia they are plentiful, particularly where predation levels are suppressed through fox control.
However much legal protection they have will not increase their numbers if the right habitat is absent. In some parts their numbers make them a pest and they need to be controlled. To quote figures from thirty years ago as Lady Helic does is absurd. She also makes much of ‘leverets being left motherless’. No right-thinking person wants that but that is why the few culls which take place happen in early February before they give birth.
I am sure she is correct that the majority of people back the change just as they back many things which Governments will not do. It is the job of politicians to study the facts and not be carried away with emotive arguments which are not supported by the evidence.