25th March 2009

Poachers fined for hare coursing

FIVE poachers who admitted hare coursing on North Kyme farmland, as well as at other sites around the county, have received fines totalling more than £1,000. The men, who travelled from their homes in the West Midlands to Lincolnshire to buy dogs for breeding, claim the animals ran away and began chasing a hare.

Travelling in one Vauxhall Frontera with two lurchers, they were reported to the police after being spotted trespassing in North Kyme, Nocton, Blankney Fen and Metheringham

15th March 2009

Burnley badger digger avoids prison

A MAN who was chased by police after digging out a badger sett has avoided a jail sentence.

Magistrates heard John Paul Fielden, 20, was caught by two officers in Cliviger after villagers spotted him and two friends interfering with a sett last August.

Yesterday, Fielden, of Oxford Road, Burnley, was handed a 12-month prison sentence suspended for 90 days and a one-year community order. He was also ordered to pay £75 costs and had items found at the scene seized

13th March 2009

Huntsman is jailed for assaults

A Devon huntsman has been jailed for assaulting two animal rights activists.

Christopher Marles, 48, of Farringdon, had earlier admitted using his horse to knock Helen Weeks to the ground as she filmed the East Devon Hunt

Watch the video here

13th March 2009

Police search homes in badger baiting probe

POLICE and animal welfare experts investigating alleged badger baiting conducted searches in Workington yesterday morning. The cross Border operation was conducted by officers from Cumbria and Dumfries and Galloway police, the RSPCA and the Scottish SPCA.

It followed an incident that happened near Lockerbie on Saturday when two men in their thirties were arrested following the disturbance of a badger sett and the killing of a badger

10th March 2009

Woman traumatised as hunt hounds run amok

AN ANIMAL-LOVER was left traumatised after hunt hounds allegedly charged into her garden

Lyn Taylor, 60, has been deeply affected by the episode, which she says erupted while she was alone at home in tranquil Woodham Walter.

"I am so traumatised by it," she said. "Before the law changed, the hunt would send a card round beforehand saying they were going to be in the area. But since then we don't get one any more.

10th March 2009

Ferry angry after judge told charge to be dropped

Rock star's campaigner son held in prison on remand for four months

Otis Ferry, the son of the rock star Bryan, spoke of his anger yesterday at having to spend four months in prison after being charged with an offence that police and prosecutors now plan to drop.

The 26-year-old countryside campaigner was locked up in September last year over allegations of witness intimidation and was forced to spend Christmas in Gloucester prison before he was granted bail in January. But yesterday Gloucester Crown Court heard that the charge of perverting the course of justice was likely to be abandoned due to the lack of evidence.

10th March 2009

Charges against huntsman dropped

The first professional huntsman to be prosecuted for hunting a fox has had all charges against him dropped.

Julian Barnfield, 44, of the Heythrop Hunt, which covers Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire, was accused of three counts of hunting a mammal with dogs. Mr Barnfield, who lives in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, was charged under the Hunting Act 2004

9th March 2009

Three men fined for hare coursing

Three men have been fined for illegally hunting hares with dogs.

Jason Bradford, 37, from Walsall, Tom Connors, 22, from Cardiff, and Brian Powell, 43, from Pontypool, were arrested near Faringdon last year. They were held as part of a crackdown on hare coursing in Oxfordshire called Operation Migrate.

8th March 2009

'Rare white deer' to be subject of 'hunting auction'

An extremely rare white deer discovered in the Scottish lowlands has become subject of a bidding war between hunters wanting to kill it.

The white-coated roebuck, which experts say is not an albino, is so unusual that only a handful have been seen in Britain since the end of the Second World War.

Kevin Stuart, who has the stalking rights to the 3,000-acre estate where the wild deer lives, hopes to get up to £6,000, four times the norm, from a trophy-seeking client when the hunting season opens in three weeks

6th March 2009

Church leaders' badger cull plea

Church leaders are calling for a cull of badgers to stop the TB virus ruining the farming industry. The Anglican Church in Somerset is pressing for urgent talks to help solve the problem of TB in cattle.

Last year, 20,000 infected beasts were slaughtered on farms across the South West. There were 2,816 new cases of TB reported, a 40% increase on 2007, and by December there were 4,000 herds under restrictions.

5th March 2009

Hunting ban judgment will not be appealed

Huntsmen will be allowed to 'search' for foxes and won't have to prove their hunting is exempt, after the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to appeal last month's controversial High Court judgment on the hunting ban.

The CPS said it would now review the outstanding cases against accused huntsmen, including that against the Devon and Somerset Staghounds and the Heythrop in Gloucestershire, but warned this did not mean the Hunting Act was dead

4th March 2009

Prosecutors drop huntsman appeal

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has said it will not contest a High Court ruling in favour of a huntsman filmed apparently chasing a fox with dogs. Tony Wright, 53, of the Exmoor Foxhounds, was the first person to be prosecuted under the Hunting Act 2004, which bans hunting with hounds.

He successfully appealed against his conviction, saying the dogs were flushing out foxes for a marksman. The CPS has warned it could still bring other prosecutions under the act

2nd March 2009

Otis Ferry's girlfriend has bail extended

Otis Ferry's girlfriend and two other people arrested as part of a police probe into alleged 'witness nobbling' have had their bail extended till the end of this week.

Francesca Nimmo, 22, Adrian Simpson, 53, and a third person have all been told to report back to police on Friday to find out whether they will be charged.

That is the date on which Ferry, son of rock star Bryan, and a co-defendant, John Deutsch, 55, from Chipping Campden, are due before Gloucester Crown Court for a progress hearing of the case against them

2nd March 2009

Ferry girl awaits charges decision

The girlfriend of South Shropshire Hunt master Otis Ferry has been bailed until the end of the week as police decide whether or not she will face charges for alleged “witness nobbling”. Ferry, 26, of Eaton Mascott, is due to appear at Gloucester Crown Court on Friday for a progress hearing on his case.

Francesca Nimmo, Ferry’s 22-year-old girlfriend, Adrian Simpson, 53, the Welsh regional director of the Countryside Alliance, and a third person will all report back on police bail on the same day to find out whether they will be charged in connection with the case. Ferry and John Deutsch, 55, face charges of taking a hunt monitor’s camera and assaulting her at a meeting of the Heythrop Hunt, Gloucestershire, in 2007

2nd March 2009

Campden man to face robbery charge alongside Bryan Ferry's son

A CHIPPING Campden man will face a robbery charge alongside rock star Bryan Ferry's son, Otis - a court heard.

John Deutsch, 55, of Ebrington Farm, was granted unconditional bail at Gloucester Crown Court where he was charged with robbing fox hunt monitors Helen Ghalmi and Susan Grima of a camera during a meeting of the Heythrop Hunt, near Stow, on November 21.

He also faced charges of affray and common assault on both women

1st March 2009

South Dorset kennel huntsman recovering after fall

The kennel huntsman of the South Dorset, Richard Tong, has broken his pelvis and dislocated his shoulder in a fall that will sideline him for the rest of the season. Mr Tong was crushed on Thursday, 12 February, in what secretary Louisa Thornycroft called a "classic rotational fall".

"He was bringing hounds down Dungeon Hill. His horse didn't clear some iron railings and landed on him," said Mrs Thornycroft. Mr Tong was taken to Dorchester Hospital for an operation, and has been moved to Bristol for a second