BBC Podcast Exposes UK Hare Coursing Crime Ring
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- Dan Ashby and Lucy Taylor premiered their 10-part BBC podcast "Buried: Dead Rabbit" at Sheffield DocFest, investigating illegal hare coursing after a 2024 Hampshire village found roughly 20 mutilated animals — including a decapitated muntjac deer — dumped outside a school.
- Chris Packham joined the investigation as a co-presenter, revealing his own history of being targeted: his house was car-bombed in 2021 and his car was set on fire in reprisal for his wildlife campaigning.
- UK police have logged more than 8,500 incidents of illegal hare coursing over the past three years, even though the activity has been banned in Britain since 2005.
- Organised crime groups run hare-coursing championships with dark-web betting stretching from China to the US, top-performing dogs selling for £50,000, and a "Super 8 cup" mega-competition with its own ornate trophy.
- Farmers from Essex to North Yorkshire have been violently terrorised — some becoming suicidal — facing smashed windows, kidnapped and skinned dogs, rape threats, and animal carcasses dumped on their land as intimidation.
- A police and crime commissioner told the journalists he suspects hare-coursing criminals are "inside the police," noting that major operations against them "mysteriously never quite work," a fear Ashby compared to "Line of Duty."
Why it matters: The investigation documents a rural crime wave most of Britain has never heard of: 8,500 incidents in three years, £50,000 dogs, dark-web gambling from China to the US, and farmers driven to suicide — plus a serving police and crime commissioner publicly floating the possibility of insider corruption in forces tasked with tackling it.
