WARNING: The below news story contains upsetting descriptions and images of animal cruelty
CRIMINAL gangs are ramming deer with vehicles before releasing dogs on them in cruel countryside offences.
Heads are taken as trophies and animals are dying slow and agonising deaths as illegal deer and hare coursing takes place across Dorset.
Now police have asked the public to be vigilant in a bid to stop the activity and save the lives of the animals targeted.
The county's rural crime team said coursing - the illegal activity of using dogs acting on sight to chase animals - is considered a hobby by many with large sums of money involved used for betting on the dogs.
A recent deer coursing incident occurred overnight on Friday November 27 in fields close to the Christchurch Bypass. The female deer was bitten, dragged along with bungee cords attached and then dumped.
Dogs favoured include Lurchers and Salukis which, like greyhounds, have good sight and speed for chasing.
The highest number of incidents of hare coursing take place in north east Dorset, where there are pockets of brown hare in their favoured habitat of arable fields.
Offenders will often use their vehicles to drive across the field, releasing dogs from moving vehicles.
They damage the soil, seeded crops, gates, hedgerows and fencing.
Farmers have reported being threatened and intimidated and offenders can leave livestock gates open on purpose. Other crimes this year included criminals driving their vehicles in to sheep grazing.
A spokesman for Dorset Police said: "Offenders often stun the deer by use of lamps or headlights, then chase the deer and ram into them with their vehicles. Dogs can be released on exhausted deer.
"The type of dogs used means that the deer’s death is not usually instantaneous. No regard is shown to the wildlife they terrorise or the surrounding habitat they damage.
"The deer are often left in situ or some heads are taken as trophies. Some take a supply to feed their coursing dogs on. No regard is shown for pregnant deer or those with dependant young."
"The dogs themselves are often kept in dirty kennels with bare concrete or wooden floors and minimal adherence to the Animal Welfare Act 2006. Dogs that tire or do not perform well are dumped, as any cursory search of dog rescue centres show."
Police Constable Claire Dinsdale, of the Rural Crime Team, said: "The individuals known for this are also often known for theft, burglary, assaults and domestic abuse offences, as well as fraud on elderly or vulnerable people.
"Coursing however is their favourite pastime, which their crimes can help fund. They are cowards who travel in groups and make threats against our hard-working rural communities.
"Anyone suffering from these crimes must report it to us and can do so in absolute confidence."
Hotspot areas for coursing include the Cranborne Chase area of Dorset on the Wiltshire and Hampshire border and either side of the A354 from Blandford, past Sixpenny Handley into Wiltshire, as well as various back roads off the A354.
Deer coursing hotspots include the rural land around Burton and Christchurch as well as areas around Dorchester.
Anyone with information is asked to call Dorset Police on 101.
