POACHING – INCREASED ACTIVITY
POACHING / HARE COURSING 

Poaching and Hare coursing are both illegal and can be terribly cruel.   They cause great distress to not only the animals but the rural community in general. 

Persons involved in this illegal activity are often well known to the Police for other rural crimes.  The longer dark evenings provides  ‘cover’ for offenders so we often get an increase in poaching offences at this time of year. 

Hare coursing is one of the most common examples of illegal poaching, with dogs used to flush out hares. Signs you should  look out for if you suspect individuals of deer, hare or badger poaching, are a group of vehicles parked at night in a rural area, (by a gate to a farmland, on a grass verge, on a farm track) which may show evidence of dogs inside. Other indications are suspicious looking road kill, bright lights and the discovery of bait, traps and snares. 

Dorset Police Rural Crime Team work closely with our partners in combating rural crimes and poaching is very much a priority for us.  Both the Police and our professional partners very much rely on YOU, our rural community, to provide us with information of poaching activity.   Please see below for ways you can contact us.  

If you witness a wildlife crime taking place, call 999. For a non-emergency, call 101. If you would like to give information regarding a crime anonymously, call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 

Anyone with information is asked to contact Dorset Police at www.dorset.police.uk. Alternatively, independent charity Crimestoppers can be contacted anonymously online at Crimestoppers-uk.org or by calling Freephone 0800 555 111.

Please do not use Dorset Alert to report a crime or something else that requires urgent police attention as we are unable to log details via this system. 

You should call 999 if you or someone else is in immediate danger.

For crime prevention advice click here.

Dorset Police – Rural Crime Team