To have gut reaction something's off.

[Carouselfish]

Live rurally. Lane with approx. 30 houses spread out over a mile, leading to small village (no shops) one way and main road the other way. Sunday, high snow banks on sides of road and slush all over. Driving into town, third of way up the lane, had to squeeze past group of 8 men, all about early thirties, very grumpy looking, with collection of dogs, mastiff, couple of lurchers, several little black terriers, making their way down towards the village.
I know it sounds very League of Gentlemen, but they weren't from the area, didn't have guns so not poaching, weren't dressed in wellies or walking boots or anything (I was passenger so had time to look). Would you just say large group of male friends who all have dogs out for a Sunday afternoon stroll somewhere random that was making them all very grumpy or what? It just seemed weird.
DP has suggested dognappers giving their stolen dogs a toilet break! I would have said poachers looking for places to come back to, especially as in the last couple of months have had two late at night incidences in the neighbouring field of people creeping about with dogs. But...they didn't look at all 'countryish'. Maybe those have made me paranoid...
MN verdict?

Big dogs and small dogs. I’m kind of thinking in the middle of nowhere dog fights..

Yes, Frasier (sorry for your missed i) fields off to both sides but no entrances until further up. Would guess they'd parked in the village and were on way back.
I think your suggestion was probably it. I'll put a note in the local magazine slightly hate myself for saying that to keep an eye out.

It's the fact that they weren't dressed appropriately for the weather, esp. footwear, that seems strange to me. But then, having frozen wet feet could account for their being grumpy.

If not hunting with the dogs, could be engaging in dog-fighting instead. Either way, not a legal activity (as far as I'm aware) so yes, they wouldn't have been remotely happy to be spotted!

I thin dog fighting too.
Apparently they set Yorkshire terriers against larger dogs because they will fight back a bit.

Not unreasonable at all.

If you see them again, you should call the police.

I’d speak to the police about it. Might be nothing but they don’t sound like nice people to me and it is odd.

Hare coursing at this time of year maybe. I also live rurally and it's a local blight, especially on a Sunday for some reason. There's big gambling money in it apparently. Despicable.

do you have local police number.if so just note it with them
if its nothing its nothing no problems.
if it is something and something else happens they have then on file something to refer back to or help them in finding out exactly who it was,corilate dates etc.

I saw some similarly very creepy looking men at a Portuguese festival in Sydney yesterday too. Like remnants of a particularly vicious war in western Europe....

If OP phones the police what is (s)he going to say?
"I saw a group of grumpy men in the countryside with dogs and they didn't have appropriate footwear."

I think she'd be perfectly reasonable to say she saw what appeared to be hare coursers. The police are very much interested in that (or at least they are here). These scum don't just set their dogs on hares, they set them (or threaten with guns or physical violence) on landowners who try to stop them trespassing too.

It's a rural thing, but we're in driving distance of London and it's endemic here just now. They were in our village a couple of weeks ago - not just dogs but tearing their 4x4's over the fields too. Has to be seen to be believed.

They sound very much like hare coursers which IS illegal and downright vile. The police will prosecute if they catch them so OP, please report this to the police.

I would contact the rural crime department of your local constabulary. This is what they are trained to look out for. Your information might be a piece in a jigsaw puzzle.

I think I would mention it to local police they may be aware and keeping an eye on things and glad of extra info.
Seems funny about footwear in this weather. We get some rabbiting but occasionally they go in field in the village not further on. They have set dogs on some local pet cats. I have reported them to local farmer every time.

They could also be casing houses under disguise of dog walkers. We had a couple who nicked a quad bike and four wheel drive. Locally thought to be rabbiting.

Just what I was thinking TeeBee couldn't think how to phrase it...bit early for brain.

Hard to tell the difference between gut instinct and prejudice, isn't it? People aren't doing something illegal just because they aren't smiling. Can't think what the police would do other than 'file under curtain twitcher'.

I also think they’re hare coursing or maybe badger baiting, but they’d probably have shovels for the latter. The group of dogs they have are the stereotypical dogs these vile people have. It’s incredibly cruel and illegal. They’re probably looking grumpy at having been seen.

I would also suggest you report it to the police and it would be perfectly reasonable to just say you’ve seen what you suspect are a group of hare coursers. As PPs have said, they will be prosecuted if caught and the information you give them may be an important piece of a jigsaw puzzle.

Rabbit coursing by the sound of the dogs.

Could be badger baiting, an illegal 'sport'. Very cruel.

Pengggwn. It’s the size of the group of men and the type and number of dogs they’ve got which makes it suspicious rather than the fact that they looked grumpy or the way they were dressed.

I have known the RSPCA take an interest in this sort of behaviour.

If it was a social thing you'd think they'd look less hostile.

Okay.

The fact that they didn't even have walking boots on makes me think they were probably on their way back from watching City beat Chelsea in a local pub. But no, obviously they were part of the criminal classes because they were a) in a group b) had dogs c) weren't smiling.

This is a ridiculous website.