National Parks and Wildlife Service oversaw 23 hare coursing meetings. Over 100 hares "required assistance" after being struck during races, which led to over 20 of them dying of natural causes or having to be euthanised. Conservation or pest control In different parts of the world two contrasting arguments are made in favour of hare coursing. In some places, the high densities of hare leads to the animals being considered as agricultural pests – a view taken, for example, by the California Department of Agriculture. Coursing is sometimes defended on this basis, even though the US Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife has said that coursing does not "reduce the population enough to alleviate damage". Elsewhere, such as in the UK, hares are not always seen as pests, and there are species action plans aiming to significantly increase their numbers. Some coursers say that coursing assists conservation because it leads to sporting landowners creating a habitat suitable for hares. Opponents of coursing say that the converse is true, namely that coursing takes place where hares live rather than hares living where coursing takes place. It is also the case that coursing kills slower hares, and it is said by some coursers that this leaves faster hares to breed and multiply. Debate and legislation United Kingdom The practice of hare coursing has only recently, in historical terms, been debated in Parliament, although Parliament created an exemption in 1921 from the cruelty legislation, the Protection of Animals Act 1911, for animals released for coursing. Eric Heffer, MP for Liverpool Walton, was a major opponent of coursing in the late 1960s, and Prime Minister Harold Wilson joined in the criticism. Under Wilson's premiership, the House of Commons voted for Government Bills to ban hare coursing in 1969 and 1975, but neither passed the House of Lords to become law. In 2002, the Scottish Parliament passed the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act, which banned hare coursing in Scotland. In 2004 the British Parliament passed the Hunting Act, which banned hare coursing as well as other forms of hunting with hounds with effect from 18 February 2005. Prosecutions were successful against two hare coursers in 2008 and against two Yorkshire landowners in 2009. The private prosecution brought against the organisers of the March 2007 North Yorkshire event organised by a Field Trialling Club clarified in September 2009 that hare coursing is still an illegal