Men caught hunting foxes on Glasgow’s Clyde Walkway

Three men have admitted deliberately hunting foxes in the east end of Glasgow. Samuel Burgoyne, 44, Robbie Lees, 26, and David Cassels, 24, used dogs with radio collars to hunt the animals on the Clyde Walkway in February. Glasgow Sheriff Court heard that the trio was caught by a wildlife crime officer who saw one [...]

Eight in court on badger offences

Seven men and a 16 year-old were granted unconditional bail at Scarborough Court last Thursday on charges brought under the Protection of Badgers Act and the Hunting Act. The offences allegedly took place on land at Howsham, near Malton. Alan Alexander, 32, of Bramham Grove, York; James Henry Doyle, 34, of Eastfield Avenue, Knottingley; William [...]

Another huntsman in court

David Cameron was facing political embarrassment last night after a leading member of the local hunt he has ridden with was charged with illegal foxhunting. Julian Barnfield, 47, the professional huntsman with the Heythrop hunt, will appear before magistrates next month on two counts of unlawfully hunting a fox. The prosecution, which is being brought [...]

Hunt master and riders charged with illegally killing foxes

Henry Hawksfield, joint master of the Crawley and Horsham Hunt, West Sussex, was filmed by hunt saboteurs at three meets in January and February this year. The videos allegedly showed him using hounds to kill foxes and prompted a police investigation. The 58-year-old from Partridge Green, near Horsham, Neil Millard, 44, from nearby Shipley, Rachel [...]

Can the Cull

What do you do when you need to make an important decision? Most people look at the facts available and base their decision on them. That’s why it’s all more the shocking that the Tories and Liberal Democrats have decided to proceed with the culling of badgers – against both the scientific evidence and the [...]

Labour launch campaign against badger cull in England

Labour have launched a campaign against a proposed cull of badgers in England to curb tuberculosis in cattle. The government – backed by its senior scientific advisors – is in favour of a cull to stop badgers spreading the disease to cattle. But opponents say its preferred method – shooting – could actually make the [...]

PR from The Badger Trust – BBC Challenged Over Badger Gassing Admission

The Badger Trust is demanding a criminal investigation of a farmer who stood by while others gassed badgers with the exhaust of an “old petrol engine”. The Report (BBC Radio 4, 8 pm, August 4) said the BBC had evidence that some were willing to take the law into their own hands and were gassing [...]

My homage to the ‘good old gamekeeper’

With the grouse season about to start on the 12th August and the pheasant season starting on 1st October I thought I would put a few articles up all about the ‘good old gamekeeper‘. Former Holkham Estate gamekeeper given conditional discharge Derbyshire gamekeeper guilty of trapping birds of prey Gamekeeper fined for wilfully killing badger Gamekeeper fined [...]

Stokesley poacher is given an Asbo

A PROLIFIC poacher who committed a series of offences over six years has been given an anti-social behaviour order. John Langan from Stokesley was arrested by officers in March 2010 in Bridlington and charged with hunting a wild mammal with dogs. Humberside Police then applied for the Asbo due to the high number of poaching [...]

Poachers be warned

Monday 11 July 2011 Police in the Ribble Valley have issued a warning to poachers after the Constabulary secured its first ever prosecutions under the Hunting Act. Nicholas Green (23), of Reynolds Street, Burnley, appeared before Preston Magistrates on June 22nd where he pleaded guilty to hunting a wild animal with a dog. He was [...]