8 months isn't long enough

[StephenToast]

I have to say I agree with Landkeeper. How many times is it posted on here about the sensationaliat wording the press use to describe firearms or shooting.

Personally I wouldn't judge a book by it's cover on this one.

 

[Smellydog]

Fair points I must admit.

 

[splash]

Landkeeper is not supporting any addenda, but sharing his experience.
I’d like to see more of the old type of vets and not the common line of is your animal insured.
As anyone who knows working terrier’s they are very trying at times and can get it into their heads they are going to kill a kennel mate and nothing on earth will stop that.
Also regards working them it’s very easy to tell when they are fox or badger dogs

 

[sikamalc]

Its unfortunate that there are a few in the countryside that act in such a barbaric manner. This then brings the media a further chance to paint us all with the same brush, which of course joe public think its true.
There is no excuse for treating an animal like this, its appalling behaviour, and the sentence far too lenient in my opinion. I believe he was also not even on his own ground, but trespassing. Showing complete disrespect.

 

[Bo Diddley]

The lad is unfortunately obviously not the sharpest tool in the box. Working terriers have had their day in this ever-changing world, practices that were once deemed perfectly acceptable in a bygone era are outlawed.
Reading between the lines I would think this chap has a couple of working terriers that he might use quite legally still for some fox control, but of course, he has overstepped the mark and drifted off down the wrong path, digging quarry that is protected by law from such brutality, and taking trophy photographs of his exploits. Who knows in a few more years there is a great possibility that some people on this forum with trophies from beasts they have slain in far-off lands with videos and photos so they can relive the moment may also be tarred with the same brush. Indeed history tells us that is the direction all field sports are heading, including fishing and horseracing.
Caberslash summed it up by saying this lad's foolish mistake is just the tip of the iceberg.

 

[willie_gunn]

I am not sure how anyone can classify pleading guilty to badger digging and dogfighting, breaching the conditions of a firearms certificate, and being in possession of three dead birds of prey as a "foolish mistake".

If these actions really represent the "tip of the iceberg" so far as the shooting community, God help us.

 

[levigsp]

for this sonofabitch . . . .

Caught after he sent a load of photographs of injured and dead animals ways to be printed. Cretin.

Angus gamekeeper who kept trophy photos of fighting dogs jailed

The 28-year-old used dogs to fight and bait wild animals on an Angus estate.

www.bbc.co.uk

people like that get all of us a bad name. He should have had far worse than a custodial sentence

 

[Bo Diddley]

I am not sure how anyone can classify pleading guilty to badger digging and dogfighting, breaching the conditions of a firearms certificate, and being in possession of three dead birds of prey as a "foolish mistake".

If these actions really represent the "tip of the iceberg" so far as the shooting community, God help us.

The "Foolish mistake" was getting dragged into illegal activities. I doubt the "dog fighting" charge was actual dog fighting with another dog, but inciting a dog to fight with a wild animal the badger.
Plenty of gamekeepers still have the attitude that anything with a hooked beak must die.
And yes the shooting community has plenty of skeletons in the cupboard to clean up, like dumping shot game because it has no value. It's a sad state of affairs when things have reached this stage.
Like you said, God help us all!

 

[Woodsmoke]

Plenty of gamekeepers still have the attitude that anything with a hooked beak must die.

These attitudes are from the Dark Ages though. Understandable (although still unacceptable) if it were 1982, but in 2022? And from a guy who's surely been trained and qualified in modern methods and techniques, with attitudes to match surely? What hope for the industry as a whole if this behaviour and attitude is prevalent amongst those who work in it?

 

[Bo Diddley]

All the gamekeepers got let go from a well-healed estate a few miles away from me, because of raptor persecution, it hit the national newspapers as a story. I would like to say it was all contrived and hearsay, but people working around that estate watched it 1st hand. Idiots!

 

[Bo Diddley]

for this sonofabitch . . . .

Caught after he sent a load of photographs of injured and dead animals ways to be printed. Cretin.

Angus gamekeeper who kept trophy photos of fighting dogs jailed

The 28-year-old used dogs to fight and bait wild animals on an Angus estate.

www.bbc.co.uk

If this isn't bad enough, I've just looked at the Mail Online, and a satanic sex cult is being charged with various crimes against three youngsters, ranging from rape, attempted murder by microwave and freezer, mutilating & killing various animals including dogs, a lad was made to stab a Budgie to death in one ceremony... all this in Glasgow with the offenders aged from 38 - 52, crazy world... I think I need a walk in the countryside with the rifle and dog for a few hours to clear my head of this nonsense.

 

[mudman]

No clear indication from the articles that he baited badgers or foxes? He dug them out certainly, and his terriers got chewed up, but nothing I read explicitly states baiting or dog fighting. Silly lad but it does read like the story was spun by the prosecution and the jury fell for it.

 

[Woodsmoke]

Silly lad

Nasty, immoral criminal, you mean? He admitted the offences. No ambiguity whatsoever.

And for anyone still prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt, at 28 you have a moral compass. You also know what's right and wrong, moral and immoral, ethical and unethical. On top of all that he also signed his FAC to accept the terms, conditions, and responsibilities that go along with it. Personally, I think the POS got off very lightly indeed

 

[landkeeper]

Nasty, immoral criminal, you mean? He admitted the offences. No ambiguity whatsoever.

And for anyone still prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt, at 28 you have a moral compass. You also know what's right and wrong, moral and immoral, ethical and unethical. On top of all that he also signed his FAC to accept the terms, conditions, and responsibilities that go along with it. Personally, I think the POS got off very lightly indeed

Having read the subsequent articles I found I agree with you

 

[Woodsmoke]

Having read the subsequent articles I found I agree with you

Just sickening, isn't it?

 

[User00036]

These attitudes are from the Dark Ages though. Understandable (although still unacceptable) if it were 1982, but in 2022? And from a guy who's surely been trained and qualified in modern methods and techniques, with attitudes to match surely? What hope for the industry as a whole if this behaviour and attitude is prevalent amongst those who work in it?

If this were the case then plenty of Birds of prey round here in Norfolk. IN the past year I seen Goshawks, Kites, Honey buzzard, Merlins , Sea Eagle & a pair of Osprey. 7 Buzzards circling the farm, unfortunately, our commonest Bird of prey when I was a lad, was the Barn owl, haven't seen one in months, I don't think its a coincidence with so many Buzzards around. To reply to OP, there are many shooting folk who are dog lovers, most of us keep dogs, we love them & look after them. The last thing we would want is to see them injured for so called sport. The guy is a Cretin, how would you like him for a father, let alone a dog owner.

 

[Fair Hill]

Nasty, immoral criminal, you mean? He admitted the offences. No ambiguity whatsoever.

And for anyone still prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt, at 28 you have a moral compass. You also know what's right and wrong, moral and immoral, ethical and unethical. On top of all that he also signed his FAC to accept the terms, conditions, and responsibilities that go along with it. Personally, I think the POS got off very lightly indeed

People in glass houses....

 

[shakey jake]

if we ignore the news paper spin about dog figthing, he still killed birds of prey. he also plead guilty. so even he knew he seriously fecked up. no one should be defending him

 

[tozzybum]

Unfortunately he isn't the only sicko out there

 

[mudman]

if we ignore the news pap

Unfortunately he isn't the only sicko out there

my liberal interpretation of that was he bolted and netted that fox. He should have then shot it, but for whatever reason he wanted it alive, and to do that he needed to scruff it. I think he would have scruffed quite a few foxes in the past, but on this occasion he made an absolute kack handed job of attempting to pin it down across the neck with the tines of the fork either side of its neck, as thus pinned down he could safely grab the scruff. Now that fox was quick, and didn’t like the idea of this so kept biting the fork, to try and get the fox pinned the fellow tried to move the fork as quick as possible, which could easily be misinterpreted as stabbing the animal. If I was the defense that would be my line. And also of course if he wanted to stab the fox, he would of stabbed it, not arsed around like he did. Silly lad.