Editing Beagling (section)

==Quarry==

[[image:Mountain Hare Scotland.jpg|thumb|Irish hare in its summer pelage]]
In the UK and Ireland, the traditional quarry of beagle packs has been the hare. In the UK, the [[European hare|brown hare]] was hunted, whereas in Ireland the [[Irish hare]] is hunted. It was estimated that before the [[Hunting Act 2004]] beagle packs in the UK collectively caught 1,650 hares per season, meaning each pack caught 20 hares. That Act banned hare hunting in its traditional style, like fox hunting, in [[England]] and [[Wales]]. It bans the hunting of most wild mammals (including hares) with certain exemptions, which include the retrieval of hares that have been shot.<ref name="Hunting Act">{{cite web |url=http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2004/ukpga_20040037_en_1.htm |title=Hunting Act 2004 |publisher=HMSO |year=2004 |accessdate=2010-03-25 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090407004821/http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2004/ukpga_20040037_en_1.htm |archivedate=2009-04-07 }}</ref>