John Robertson Photography - My Blog

Aug 12, 2025

Raising hare

I've just finished reading Chloe Dalton’s excellent book ‘Raising Hare’. It has recommendations from three of the people I've photographed, so I thought it must be good! Michael Morpurgo, Chris Packham and Angelina Jolie. The book bought back memories of a Guardian assignment from many years before.

It had been an early start to go out with the hare coursers in the Cambridgeshire countryside, near the appropriately named Huntingdon. I’d been expecting a ‘hot landing zone’ but in fact and despite the fact that I didn’t try to hide which newspaper I was working for, the hare coursers climbing into a tractor trailer with me couldn’t have been more welcoming. This was way before the ban on hare coursing and fox hunting took effect in February 2005. It was a crisp winter morning and a rather posh lady called Remeny offered me a slug of homemade sloe gin to keep the cold at bay as we rattled across the fields.

Loading up my film cameras with Ilford black and white film I waited while the greyhounds and whippets had their protective jackets removed and were made ready for the coursing. Remeny and some of the others I had chatted to told me that only one in four of the hares chased by the dogs actually died and that often it was the weaker or diseased hares that didn’t make it. The dogs were very excited. So excited in fact that one of the owners received a bite from the needle sharp teeth of his own greyhound.

Keeping my opinions to myself I carried on and watched as ‘the slip’ happened. The 50 yard start given to the hare, flushed out by beaters, before the dogs are let loose. A frantic chase ensued as the hare leapt, skipped, jumped, weaved about literally ran for it’s life. I watched several of these chases and yes, the hares did get away from the dogs. Inevitably one didn’t and there was a horrible squeal from it as the dogs bit and tore into it. I can still hear the child-like scream it issued at the moment of it’s demise. Rather sickened by that I walked back across the fields to my car with a set of photos that still sell, even just the other day.

Sadly illegal hare coursing still goes on across the UK. Such beautiful creatures- I saw one not far from my home in Northamptonshire this month, in a cornfield. Chloe's book is well worth a read, espcially for lovers of the countryside.