AN animal welfare group says hares will die out in south Bucks if a ban on shooting them is not brought in.

The British Brown Hare Preservation Society is calling on the Government to enforce a ban on shooting the animals because the group fears they may become extinct.

Trading Standards is now enforcing the 1892 Hares Preservation Act, which bans butchers from selling hare or leveret meat, something the society sees as a vital step in helping the critical decline of the animal.

John Rimington, regional spokesman for the British Brown Hare Preservation Society, said: It is diabolical that in Britain we do not have a period of time during the year when shooting hares is banned.

We are the only country in the European Union not to have a seasonal ban on the killing of hares and this is causing them to become in danger of going extinct.

There are massive shoots that go on in the spring that kill up to 40 per cent of the hare population.

The act means butchers are banned from selling the game meat from March to July and could face punishment if found to be in breach of the act.

The demand for hare has declined since the the act was introduced when the animal was the staple diet of many people in Britain.

Joe Gleeson, owner of Gleeson butchers, in Hazlemere Road, Penn, said: There is no real demand for hare or leveret from my customers so the ban on its sale is not really going to affect my business.