Investigating officer:
RSPCA Inspector
Dean Astillberry
Defendants:
Male 45, farmer;
male 17, student
Offences:
Animal Welfare Act 2006 s4
and s9
Pleas:
Guilty
Total convictions:
Eight
Sentence:
Older male disqualified from
keeping animals for 15 years;
four months' imprisonment.
Younger male received a
six-month supervision order;
£85 costs.
Prosecuted by:
Kenneth Bush Solicitors
Investigating officer:
RSPCA Inspector
Anthony Joynes
Defendants:
1: male 30, unemployed;
2: male 29, builder;
3: male 24, unemployed;
4: male 22, unemployed
Offences:
Animal Welfare Act 2006 s4;
Protection of Badgers Act
1992 s3
Pleas:
Guilty
Total convictions:
Seven
Sentence:
All disqualified from keeping
dogs for life; £200 costs.
Defendant 1:
22 weeks' imprisonment.
Defendant 2:
12 weeks' imprisonment.
Defendant 3:
12 weeks' imprisonment.
Defendant 4:
16 weeks' imprisonment.
Prosecuted by:
Wains Solicitors
NORFOLK
PERSONS
CONVICTED 15
TOTAL
CONVICTIONS 57
MERSEYSIDE
PERSONS
CONVICTED 37
TOTAL
CONVICTIONS 95 NorfolkIn a joint investigation by the RSPCA and Trading
Standards, a farmer and his son admitted a catalogue
of livestock failures and animal welfare offences.
These included leaving a horse
carcass to rot for more than a
month on their farm.
The farm was inspected on
numerous occasions, and each
time it was in an appalling state.
The men were advised on what
they needed to do, but both
failed to make any improvements,
and every time inspectors
returned further offences came
to light.
Various livestock was housed in
pens that were full of slurry so
deep it reached the top of RSPCA
Inspector Dean Astillberry's
wellington boots. It was apparent
the gates to the pens had not
been opened for a long time -
they were difficult to open and
when they were released rivers of
slurry poured out into the yard.
The farmer continued to ignore
advice from RSPCA inspectors
and Norfolk Trading Standards
officers and left his son
unequipped to look after the
animals. The district judge said he
behaved "appallingly".
MerseysideFour men, who posed as rabbit pest controllers,
encouraged their dogs to brutally maul a fox to
death and filmed the attack for repeat gratification.
Six dogs, some of which had
'serious injuries', together with
locator collars and spades, were
found when police stopped the
mens' van. Although the men
claimed they had been rabbiting,
no evidence of this was found,
nor were any rabbit carcasses. A
phone was seized, examined and
found to contain horrific photos
and video footage of a badger
and a fox being attacked.
The district judge called the
attack "barbaric and medieval in
its wickedness". He said there was
"overwhelming evidence" that
badger setts had been interfered
with, adding that the six-month
maximum prison term for that
offence was "perhaps something
Parliament should consider
looking at again".
Inspector Joynes called it "the
most appalling act of cruelty and
barbaric fighting" he had ever
come across. He said the men
went out equipped for a day of
hunting to kill "whatever they
could find".
25
www.rspca.org.uk/prosecutions/annualreport