UK gardening - RSPCA welcomes sentence for hunting with dogs

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RSPCA welcomes sentence for hunting with dogs

Stephen Firth

2007-03-31, 9:25 am

RSPCA welcomes sentence for hunting with dogs

http://www.wigantoday.net/ViewArtic...&SectionID=5904

The RSPCA has said it is delighted that a Merseyside man found guilty
of breaching the hunting ban was ordered to pay almost £6,000 after he
was found guilty of hunting a fox with dogs.
Paul McMullan, 36, was sentenced at Chester Magistrates' Court after
he was convicted of using a dog to flush out a fox from a badger sett
on January 11 last year.

Two other men - Mark Kenneth Walsh, 18, of St Augustine's, Netherton,
Liverpool, Paul Kelly, 21, of Outer Forum, Norris Green, Liverpool,
and a juvenile, who cannot be named for legal reasons - were sentenced
at hearings last year.

RSPCA chief inspector Ian Briggs said: "We are delighted with the
outcome of this case. The ability to make animals suffer for sport is
barbaric and we are glad to see the court has given a very clear and
authoritative judgment on this."

The case was the first prosecution brought by the RSPCA under the
Hunting Act 2004.

McMullan, of Musker Drive, Bootle, Merseyside was fined £750, ordered
to pay £5,000 costs and told to forfeit his terrier and lurcher dogs
into RSPCA care.

The court heard how the three men and the juvenile left their homes on
the morning of January 11 and travelled to the field near Ferma Lane
with five terrier-type dogs and one lurcher, three shovels and a
number of locator collars.

Once at the sett the group put two dogs into the sett to flush out a
fox which they allowed their dogs to kill when it emerged.

Walsh admitted a charge of hunting a wild animal with a dog on October
16. He was fined £500, ordered to pay costs of £2,896.07, forfeit a
number of spades and locator collars and his dog, a tan and white
terrier, was confiscated.

The juvenile pleaded guilty at Sefton Juvenile Court also on October
16 to the same charge and was sentenced on November 3 to an 18-month
conditional discharge and was ordered to pay costs of £500.

amacmil304@aol.com

2007-03-31, 5:25 pm

On Sat, 31 Mar 2007 11:35:17 +0100, Stephen Firth
<steve@smalloc.co.uk> wrote:

>RSPCA welcomes sentence for hunting with dogs
>
>http://www.wigantoday.net/ViewArtic...&SectionID=5904
>
>The RSPCA has said it is delighted that a Merseyside man found guilty
>of breaching the hunting ban was ordered to pay almost £6,000 after he
>was found guilty of hunting a fox with dogs.
>Paul McMullan, 36, was sentenced at Chester Magistrates' Court after
>he was convicted of using a dog to flush out a fox from a badger sett
>on January 11 last year.
>
>Two other men - Mark Kenneth Walsh, 18, of St Augustine's, Netherton,
>Liverpool, Paul Kelly, 21, of Outer Forum, Norris Green, Liverpool,
>and a juvenile, who cannot be named for legal reasons - were sentenced
>at hearings last year.
>
>RSPCA chief inspector Ian Briggs said: "We are delighted with the
>outcome of this case. The ability to make animals suffer for sport is
>barbaric and we are glad to see the court has given a very clear and
>authoritative judgment on this."
>
>The case was the first prosecution brought by the RSPCA under the
>Hunting Act 2004.
>
>McMullan, of Musker Drive, Bootle, Merseyside was fined £750, ordered
>to pay £5,000 costs and told to forfeit his terrier and lurcher dogs
>into RSPCA care.
>
>The court heard how the three men and the juvenile left their homes on
>the morning of January 11 and travelled to the field near Ferma Lane
>with five terrier-type dogs and one lurcher, three shovels and a
>number of locator collars.
>
>Once at the sett the group put two dogs into the sett to flush out a
>fox which they allowed their dogs to kill when it emerged.
>
>Walsh admitted a charge of hunting a wild animal with a dog on October
>16. He was fined £500, ordered to pay costs of £2,896.07, forfeit a
>number of spades and locator collars and his dog, a tan and white
>terrier, was confiscated.
>
>The juvenile pleaded guilty at Sefton Juvenile Court also on October
>16 to the same charge and was sentenced on November 3 to an 18-month
>conditional discharge and was ordered to pay costs of £500.

Good! This and the other incidents show that hunting with dogs is not
to be tolerated.

Angus Macmillan
www.roots-of-blood.org.uk
www.killhunting.org
www.con-servation.org.uk

All truth passes through three stages:
First, it is ridiculed;
Second, it is violently opposed; and
Third, it is accepted as self-evident.
-- Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

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