North West Hunt Saboteurs AssociationBadgers
A police officer was arrested for allegedly interfering with a badger sett at the same time his force was targeting the cruel sport of badger baiting. The man has since quit the force and is still being investigated by his former colleagues. A police officer based in Newcastle area command was arrested in February 2008 on suspicion of interference with a badger sett. He was released on police bail pending further enquiries. The officer was suspended but subsequently tendered his resignation. This was accepted. The investigation continues. The officer - who comes from the Westerhope area of Newcastle - has not been named. He was arrested after a badger sett in Northumberland, was found to have been disturbed.
A man who took part in badger baiting has won a cut in his prison sentence. John William Lee (40) of Ferndale Avenue, Middlesborough was accused of trying to take badgers. Lee was charged with wilfully attempting to take a badger, allowing a dog to encounter another animal resulting in injury and failing to exercise reasonable care and supervision over his dogs. He denied the offences but was convicted in his absence by Teesside magistrates after he did not turn up on time. He was jailed for the maximum six months, but appealed against the sentence at Teesside Crown Court on 21/4/08. With no previous convictions for animal cruelty, the judges reduced the sentence to four months. Lee is still banned from keeping animals for 10 years and had to give his dogs to the RSPCA.
On 14/5/08 a Lancashire man was arrested and bailed after allegedly being caught illegally digging a badger sett near Whitchurch. A joint operation by the RSPCA's Special Operations Unit and Lancashire Police led to the discovery of the man appearing to be badger digging on Sunday. The man, who was discovered with four terrier dogs, fled the scene and was arrested by the police in Lancashire. He has subsequently been interviewed and bailed pending further enquiries.
A man is accused of snaring six badgers and beating them to death with a blunt instrument. Anthony Rogers (58) of Breconside Farm, Moffat, faced nine charges at Dumfries Sheriff Court on 29/9/08 in connection with the deaths of the animals. It is alleged in six of the charges that he snared and killed the badgers at Crockett Wood on the farm. The case was continued without plea for three weeks.
A Chorley man is to appear in court accused of illegally digging up a badger sett. The man, who will appear before Market Drayton magistrates on November 17, was allegedly caught digging a sett with four terrier dogs near Whitchurch, Shropshire. He fled the scene but was later arrested in a joint operation by Lancashire Police and the RSPCA.
Two men caught allowing dogs to attack badgers had filmed previous exploits and bragged in text messages and to police, Alnwick magistrates heard on 6/11/08. Christopher Hindmarsh (28) of Alwinton Square, and Justin Lang (24) of Norham Road, both Ashington, Northumberland, admitted a series of offences against badgers. The case had been listed for a five-day trial, but the men changed their pleas on offences of damaging a badger sett, obstructing access to a sett and causing a dog to enter one. Hindmarsh admitted a further charge of attempting to kill, injure or take a badger. There was also evidence on the defendants’ mobile phones of other offences, including footage of a badger being attacked by a dog. Lang had also sent text messages telling how he had captured and killed the creatures. The case was adjourned until 20/11/08 for sentence. Both men were granted unconditional bail.
Bloodsports
On 24/4/08 four men, three of whom are from Shropshire with the fourth unable to be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to hare coursing at Peterborough magistrates. The four men were sentenced as follows: Steven White (39) from Bilsden, Shropshire, was fined £750 and ordered to pay court costs of £75. Jonathon Smith (20) from Bilsden, Shropshire, was fined £600 and ordered to pay court costs of £75. Kevin Hall (30) from Bilsden, Shropshire, was fined £750 and ordered to pay court costs of £75. A 17-year-old boy, who cannot be named, was fined £375 and ordered to pay court costs of £75. All four men were also disqualified from driving for three months.
A gamekeeper and a land agent have been sent for trial before a judge and jury after a raid by RSPB investigators and North Yorkshire Police on a Yorkshire Dales farm unearthed lethal poisons. Gamekeeper James Freeman (56) of Moor House Farm, Lofthouse, Nidderdale and agent Simon Clowes (56) of Lawkland Green House, Lawkland, Austwick, near Settle, made a fifth appearance before magistrates at Harrogate on 2/5/08 facing a total of 12 charges. Freeman is now accused of eight offences after a ninth alleging possession of two syringes and a quantity of alphachloralose which were capable of being used to commit offences contrary to the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act was dropped. He did not enter any plead to the remaining counts, four of which claim that at his farm he stored pesticides, with active ingredients including sodium cyanide and aluminium phosphide without approval while a fifth alleges use of a sodium cyanide-based pesticide. He is also facing two charges of storing pesticides - involving both sodium cyanide and aluminium phosphide - without taking all reasonable precautions to protect the health of people and creatures, by keeping it in a glass jar in an unlocked store which was not sufficiently fire resistant. An eighth charge claims Freeman had in his possession strychnine which had not been authorised or registered. Clowes pleaded not guilty to four charges, three of permitting Freeman to store pesticides without the required approval and one of permitting him to store a pesticide in an unsafe place, an unlocked storeroom in a dwelling, and failing to take all reasonable precautions to protect the health of people and wildlife. Both men were sent for trial at York Crown Court. Both were granted unconditional bail.
MP Nicholas Soames was banned from driving for two months ban after admitting driving his quad bike with no insurance. The ex Crawley MP, 60 was filmed committing the offence by hunt saboteurs as he followed a New Year's Day hunt in Slaugham. Footage showed a group of people, including three children aged three, five and seven and a pregnant woman, being carried unrestrained and without helmets on the Honda quad bike and trailer (click image right for bigger pic). Soames, who faced the insurance rap at Crawley magistrates on 14/5/08, had also been charged with using a vehicle in a dangerous condition. A DVD clip was played to the court showing Soames and his passengers coming off a grass verge to avoid the saboteurs' parked cars before crossing into the next field at 10mph. The court was also told that Soames had three previous endorsements on his licence, all fixed penalties, one of which is out of date now but not at the time of the offence. Soames was also fined £200 fine, £15 victim surcharge and £35 prosecution costs on top of the two month driving ban.
On 19/5/08 John Joseph Bowman (19) of Lakeland View, Greengill, Penrith and William Smith (27) of Keighley Road, Skipton were both fined £200 each after they pleaded guilty at Carlisle magistrates to hunting a fox with a dog and causing a dog to enter a badger sett. The court heard how the two were arrested by the police after they were disturbed by a member of the public whilst digging in to a badger sett. Also with them were three terrier-type dogs and a lurcher-type dogs. Magistrates also ordered Smith to pay £200 costs and Bowman to pay £100. No deprivation order was made against the dogs.
Windham Morgan (68) of Maes y Beran Farm, Abergavenny, pleaded guilty to keeping pigeons in a cage too small for the birds to stretch their wings freely and to using a trap to kill or take a wild bird. On 20/5/08 Cwmbran magistrates heard that Morgan had set up a larsen trap in his pheasant pen, with two caged pigeons inside to lure others into the trap. Magistrates heard that the trap breached the Wildlife and Countyside Act because pigeons are not one of the five birds permitted for use as decoys. They also heard that the 76.2cm by 38.1cm and 46.9cm cage was not big enough for the pigeons, who have a wing span of 61cm. Morgan admitted knowing it was illegal to use pigeons in the traps. Morgan was given 12 months conditional discharge and ordered to pay £100 costs. He will forfeit the larsen trap and the two pigeons, which have now been re-homed.
On 30/5/08 Dean Lee Marney (27) from Sidcup, Kent, pleaded guilty at Fenland magistrates in Wisbech to trespassing in pursuit of game. Marney was ordered to pay fines of £285 at Peterborough magistrates the following day. The court heard that Marney entered private farmland with a dog and was spotted poaching.
Two brothers have been ordered to pay more than £1,000 each in fines and costs for hare coursing. Craig Richards (33) and his brother Scott (20) from Rowley Regis, in the West Midlands, admitted three charges of hunting hares with dogs. Craig Richards was ordered to pay fines, costs and compensation of £1,176.65, and his younger brother was ordered to pay £1,026.65. Didcot magistrates heard on 24/6/08 that they had driven to the Wantage and Steventon areas to go coursing.
Two hunters from South Tyneside appeared in a Scottish court on 8/7/08 after they used dogs to chase and kill a deer. Paul Reed (26) of Halstead Place, and a 16-year-old, also from South Shields, were spared jail when they appeared at Jedburgh Sheriff Court. A third accused - Dane Ord (19) of Widdrington Avenue, Horsley Hill - failed to turn up, and a warrant was granted for his arrest. All three admitted, while acting with a juvenile, wilfully killing a roe deer using dogs and deliberately hunting a roe deer with three dogs. Ord and the youth were discovered a short time later with blood on their clothes, and three lurcher-type dogs were also found covered with blood and deer hairs. Reed, who described hunting as his hobby since the age of 14, was sentenced to 120 hours' community service and fined £435. The 16-year-old was placed on probation for 12 months and ordered to perform 100 hours' community service. Both were banned from keeping dogs, within the jurisdiction, for four years.
A case against three men accused of killing 29 swans has been dropped after evidence was lost at a police station. The swans, all shot, were found buried in a pit near water at Radwell Lake, Bedfordshire. Stephen Barrett (38), Marcus Walker (51) of Wykeridge Close, Chesham and Darren Walker (47) of Rose Drive, Chesham, Buckinghamshire, pleaded not guilty and a trial was set for 4/8/08. The CPS dropped the case as ammunition allegedly used to kill the swans was lost, Bedfordshire Police said. The lake, owned by the Walker brothers was purpose-built for legal shoots. There was also a heron and a Marsh Harrier found with the swans.
The first huntsman to be prosecuted by police for hunting a fox has denied all charges against him. Julian Barnfield (44) of the Heythrop Hunt, which covers Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire, faces three counts of hunting a wild mammal with dogs. Barnfield, who lives in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, was charged under the Hunting Act 2004. He did not appear before Cheltenham magistrates on 4/8/08 but his counsel entered not guilty pleas on all counts. The case was adjourned until 3/11/08, when a pre-trial review will take place at Cheltenham magistrates.
On 8/8/08 Mary Birkbeck, of Little Massingham House, was accused of permitting land at Little Massingham to be used for hare coursing, two offences of knowingly facilitating hare coursing and two of attending a hare coursing event. Les Anderson, of 14 East Hall Road Bungalows, Lodge Road, Feltwell, faced two charges of attending a hare-coursing event and three of knowingly facilitating such an event. Robert Fryer, of Tring, Hertfordshire, was accused of two offences of participating in and two of attending a hare-coursing event. The case was adjourned until 23/9/08.
Two men caught hare coursing were yesterday spared a prison sentence. Robert Clements (44) and David Scott (40) used three lurchers to hunt a hare on farmland. The pair had claimed that they had been hunting rabbits. On 14/8/08 Clements, of Blantyre, Lanarkshire, and Scott, of Carluke, also Lanarkshire, were found guilty of hunting the hare contrary to the Scottish Parliament's recent ban on hunting with dogs. Both were sentenced them each to 80 hours of community service.
A gamekeeper appeared in court charged with the attempted murder of his estranged wife's boyfriend in an isolated Lincolnshire village. Andrew Dixon (45) of Parsons Lane, Alford, pleaded not guilty at Lincoln Crown Court on 22/8/08 to attempting to murder Neil Willett (41). He also denied wounding his wife Shirley Dixon (42) on the same day as well as two firearms charges. The judge adjourned the case for trial until 2009. Dixon was remanded into custody until a review hearing in November.
A teenage gamekeeper who clubbed to death badgers and shot buzzards then recorded the illegal killings in a coded diary has been spared jail. Kyle Burden (19) of Kempton, Aston on Clun, near Craven Arms, Lydbury North claimed he killed the animals ahead of the shooting season to protect pheasants and partridges, game for wealthy visitors to a Shropshire estate. He put all the details in a diary, alongside the deaths of 300 rabbits and 40 ravens. Burden was given a six-month suspended jail sentence and ordered to complete 150 hours of community service, after pleading guilty to killing two buzzards, attempting to kill two other birds, and killing two badgers. He also admitted setting illegal traps, possessing a shotgun while committing two of the offences, and asked for five other offences of killing badgers to be taken into consideration. The notes he kept, complete with symbols for the deaths of different animals, suggested he may have killed many more birds of prey, Telford magistrates heard on 19/9/08. The court heard how Burden worked on the 6,000-acre Kempton estate near Bishop's Castle, south Shropshire.
On 9/9/08 North Avon magistrates were shown footage of three men attending a cock-fighting event. The video, caught on security cameras, shows a group watching two birds fighting at a travellers' site in Bristol. George Loveridge (38) and Benjamin Jones (27) admitted their roles in the event, a third man, Michael Purcell (26) denied taking part in any cruelty. Loveridge, Jones, and Purcell of Beaufort Crescent, Mannswood, Usk, are said to have organised the contest, near the Highwood Lane site. Loveridge, of Mancroft Avenue in Lawrence Weston, admitted causing unnecessary suffering to a cockerel and causing an animal fight to take place. Jones, who lives at the Highwood Lane site, admitted taking part in an animal fight at an earlier hearing. Both will be sentenced at a later date. Purcell of Park Lane, Frampton Cotterell, near Bristol, pleaded not guilty to two charges - one of being present at the 
fight and another of taking part in it. He was convicted on 9/9/08 of both offences. On 2/10/08 Loveridge was jailed for 18 weeks and banned from keeping animals for two years. Purcell was handed a 12-week suspended sentence and Jones was given an eight-week suspended sentence. Loveridge was also ordered to pay £2,000 costs. Purcell was ordered to pay £4,000 costs and do 250 hours of community service. Jones was also banned from keeping animals for two years and was given an 7pm to 7am curfew for 20 weeks.
On 25/9/08 Otis Ferry of Keeper's Cottage, Eaton Mascott, Shrewsbury (he is also master of the South Shropshire Hunt) was remanded in custody facing two counts of perverting the course of justice. Ferry had been on trial accused of robbing a hunt monitor and assaulting another. But the trial was halted and Ferry, of Easton Mascot, Shropshire, arrested after he allegedly telephoned key witness David Hodgkiss, his former groomsman, in a bid to prevent him taking the stand. If he pleads not guilty to the charges he could remain in jail until the trial, which is provisionally scheduled to take place on 9/3/09. Ferry has denied stealing a Samsung video camera from a anti-hunt campaigner and assaulted another during a meeting of the Heythrop Hunt.
A huntsman repeatedly pushed a protester from West Coker into a ditch with his horse as she tried to monitor his foxhounds, a court heard. Farmer Christopher Marles (46) of Farringdon, near Exeter rode the horse forward three times, forcing Helen Weeks of West Coker Hill off the narrow road each time. On 3/10/08 Exeter magistrates heard Mrs Weeks was terrified and had a sore back and stomach after climbing out of the ditch three times. Marles is a former whipper-in and committee member of the East Devon Hunt, were out with their foxhounds when the confrontation happened. Marles admitted common assault but magistrates adjourned the case for a special hearing to establish exactly what happened after the prosecution did not accept Marles' basis of plea. The prosecution said Marles rode into the protester deliberately. He says it was an accident but admitted he was reckless in allowing his horse to get so close to her. The case was adjourned until 19/11/08. Marles has a previous conviction for assault of a hunt monitor.
Three men and a youth found in a muddy 4x4 vehicle with a number of lurcher dogs admitted illegal hare coursing. The four hare courses appeared before Ely magistrates on 6/11/08. Danny King (22) of Dartford, Kent; George King (25) of Bexleyheath, Kent; and Charles Lee (25) of Caterham, Surrey; were all fined £150 and ordered to pay £25 costs and a £15 surcharge. Danny King and Lee were also banned from driving for 28 days. The 14-year-old youth was fined £30 with £5 costs and a £15 surcharge.
Dogfighting and Pit Bulls
A Walsall man who made a gym to train illegal fighting dogs in his home was today jailed for six months. Stephen Wood (28) of Dryden Road, Harden, was also banned from keeping animals for 10 years. He was found guilty on 12/6/08 of possessing dogs in connection with dog fighting and having items connected with dog fighting in his absence after failing to turn up to his trial. The court heard how Wood had all of the equipment needed to put illegal pit bulls through their paces turning them into fighting machines.
THE referee in one of the bloodiest dogfights ever investigated by the RSPCA has had his prison sentence extended by five months. Intikab Hussain (32) of Sladefield Road, Ward End, was one of seven men who took part in a brutal dogfight between two pit bulls in a kitchen showroom in Alum Rock in 2006. He was jailed at the end of September 2007 after he lost his appeal against convictions of causing unnecessary suffering, assisting at a dogfight and possessing a pit bull terrier. On 6/10/08 he was given a further five-month sentence, which is to be served on top of his original six months, after he pleaded guilty at Birmingham magistrates to possessing pit bull terriers, possessing dogs for fighting, possessing a treadmill for training dogs and breaching a five-year disqualification on keeping dogs. 
Liaquat Ali (40) of Steiner Street, Accrington, Lancashire was jailed on 12/11/08 for six months for arranging dog fights. He was convicted of keeping a premise for the purposes of dog fighting and causing two animals to fight. Ali also admitted causing unnecessary suffering to a pit bull-type dog. Officers from the RSPCA and Lancashire Constabulary searched two properties owned or rented by Ali in June 2007. At one of them, on Richmond Road, Blackburn, an emaciated dog called Enzo was found locked in a wooden box with no food or water. At the other, a flat on Blackburn Road, Accrington, officers found blood on the walls which forensic tests showed came from more than one dog. Two video clips of dog fights were also found on his mobile phone. Ali also pleaded guilty at Hyndburn magistrates to possession of two pit bulls, contrary to the Dangerous Dogs Act, recovered from those addresses.
Eggs/Birds
James Vincent (51) from Peverel, Essex, was caught red-handed by a police officer after trying to trap highly protected wild birds near Scarborough. He was fined £250 following a hearing at Scarborough magistrates on 6/5/08. He must also pay £50 costs. Vincent admitted three offences of attempting to take a wild linnet, using a trap for the purpose of attempting to take wild birds, and being in possession of a trap capable of being used to commit the offence.
Equine
A farmer who allowed an old horse to starve on his land has been fined and ordered to pay more than €3,300 in expenses to the ISPCA. John Dunphy (53) from Knockanoran, Durrow, Co. Laois appeared before Portlaoise District Court on 11/4/08.
Paul Davies (50) of Lower Cwmtwrch, Swansea, was sentenced at Neath magistrates on 13/5/08 having previously pleaded guilty to nine charges of cruelty against horses. An RSPCA inspector discovered seven ponies in very poor physical condition and two dead ponies. Davies admitted seven charges of starvation and two charges of starvation resulting in death. The court imposed a 12-week suspended custodial sentence, and banned the defendant from keeping all animals for 10 years. He was also ordered to pay costs of £1,000 and to undertake 200 hours of community service.
Assorted
Two women have each received 10-year bans for causing unnecessary suffering to three greyhounds and failing to meet the welfare needs of another four greyhounds. Rosemary Hagger (51) and Rebecca Hagger (20) from Peterborough each received the bans at Peterborough magistrates on 28/4/08. Hagger was banned from keeping dogs for 10 years, and her daughter Rebecca was banned from keeping any animals for 10 years. Rebecca was also ordered to do 200 hours of community service, and Rosemary was given a 12-month conditional discharge. The pair were each ordered to pay £250 in costs. The court also heard that both defendants had worked in the greyhound racing industry.
A Pet shop owner breached regulations over the sale of endangered species, a court heard. Police raided Ringwood Pets in Christchurch Road, Ringwood, and discovered that Dawn Clarke (42) was trading in Hermann tortoises and Madagascar boa snakes, New Forest magistrates were told on 29/4/08. Clarke, who has since closed the shop and moved to Axminster, Devon, admitted five offences of selling endangered animals, offering them for sale or keeping them for sale. Clarke was fined £250 for each offence and told to pay £450 in costs. The magistrates also imposed a £15 victim surcharge, making a total financial penalty of £1,465. Clarke was cleared of failing to comply with pet shop regulations.
A confiscation order against a man illegally selling exotic animals whilst fraudulently claiming benefits has netted more than £20,000. Police officers, along with Fenland Council and the RSPCA, conducted an investigation into Paul Grange of York Road in Chatteris. A number of exotic animals were found at his home, which he had been advertising on the internet. He had also failed to notify his district council of his bank balances on three occasions while making an application for benefits to which he was not entitled. In April 2008 Grange pleaded guilty to three counts of obtaining property by deception and was given a nine month sentence suspended for 12 months and ordered to attend a skills for life course. On 22/10/08 a confiscation hearing was held at Cambridge Crown Court. The judge declared an amount of £23,176.04 should be confiscated from Grange. A proportion of this money will go to Fenland Council by way of compensation.
Farm Animals (Guardians Of The Land - My Arse!!!)
On 27/6/08 David Dobbin (46) formerly of Chorlton Lodge Farm, Backford, was sentenced to four months in prison for the illegal burying of carcasses, six counts under the Trade Description Act relating to altering the identity of cattle by switching their ear tags contrary to strict cattle identification regulations and animal cruelty. He was also banned from keeping animals for ten years. Dobbin’s former partner Susan Lofthouse (36) was given a four-month suspended sentence for 12 months and a 150-hour community order.
Domestic
A Longridge man admitted causing unnecessary suffering to a 12-year-old collie dog by failing to provide veterinary care and an adequate diet. Christopher Eddlestone, 51, of Neville Street, Longridge, appeared at Preston Magistrates Court on 17/4/08. He was scheduled to stand trial but decided to plead guilty to the allegations instead. Eddlestone was banned from keeping any animals for five years; sentenced to a three-month curfew order between 7pm-7am during which time he will be electronically tagged; ordered to pay £3,000 costs. The dog has now been placed with new owners.
Sean Bushell-Clarke (26) of Bulford Road, Liverpool, was jailed after stabbing his dog to death and burying him in a shallow grave in his back garden. On 9/5/08 Liverpool magistrates sent him to prison for four months and banned from keeping animals for five years. Bushell-Clarke admitted punching the four-month-old puppy about 10 times before stabbing him in his back.
Simon Roberts (29) of Green Park Close, Blackburn, admitted failing to meet the needs of his cat when he appeared before Pennine magistrates on 9/5/08. He was sentenced to a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay a £1,000 fine.
Gordon Twist (61) of South View Farm, Hesketh Bank pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to his dog by failing to provide veterinary care. At Ormskirk magistrates on 22/5/08 Twist was fined £250 and ordered to pay £265 costs and he was banned from owning dogs for five years.
Patrick Walker (36) Newick Road, Brighton stabbed his dog to death in a brutal attack in a park has been jailed for 26 weeks. Walker used a hunting knife to stab his dog 55 times after it attacked his partner's teenage daughter. Walker, who killed his American bull terrier was also banned from keeping animals for the rest of his life. Walker was convicted of causing unnecessary suffering to an animal after a three-day trial at Brighton magistrates on 26/5/08.
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