Four men have been banned from North Yorkshire and keeping dogs after a badger was mauled to death by a pit bull terrier near Kilburn.
Marcus Crosby, 25, Timothy Tyres, 20, Liam Parkinson, 26, and Brogan Smithson, 18, drove into the North Yorkshire countryside purportedly “looking for rabbits”, but one of their dogs made straight for a badger, York Magistrates’ Court heard.
Prosecutor Fiona Newcombe said the disturbing incident occurred in the early hours of May 12 last year when the badger baiters and a fifth, unnamed man, drove from the Stockton and Middlesbrough areas to Kilburn in a Jeep Cherokee with a pit bull and a lurcher.
They arrived at a remote spot on High Town Bank Road, on the edge of the North York Moors, with the specific intention, according to the prosecution, of hunting badgers.
The noise they made alerted members of the public who notified police. When two officers arrived, they found a group of men “looking into the bushes” at the pit bull savaging the badger. On seeing the officers, the men ran away, got in the Jeep and drove off.
“The officers said the pit bull had a badger in its mouth, ragging the badger around,” added Ms Newcombe.
She said the badger “squealed in pain for a few minutes before succumbing to its injuries”. Only when the poor creature died did the dog let go and drop it to the ground.
Police confiscated both dogs and ultimately arrested the four defendants, who were each charged with causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal and ill-treatment of a badger. They admitted the offences and appeared for sentence on Friday, October 11.
The court heard that the two dogs had been placed in kennels since the incident.
Parkinson, who owned the lurcher, had made enquiries about his pet and was told it had “initially been stolen from the kennels, but then returned, but within a matter of days it had died”. The owner of the Pit Bull was not among the men in the dock.
Christopher Marley, for all four defendants, said that Parkinson, of Victoria Terrace, Port Clarence, Stockton-on-Tees, was the only one of the defendants who had a job but the only one with a previous conviction in adulthood.
He said that Smithson, of Durham Road, Stockton, had serious mental health problems and was currently receiving treatment after being sectioned since the incident. He was currently living in a hostel under the care of mental health services.
Mr Marley said that Smithson’s involvement in the incident was “perhaps peripheral, at the behest of others involved”, namely filming the incident.
He said that Tyres, of Sidlaw Road, Billingham, claimed he had just “gone along for the ride”.
He said that Crosby, of Laburnum Grove, Middlesborough, was also “effectively a man of good character”.
He added that, according to the defendants, they “hadn’t travelled to the area with the intention of looking for a badger: they were looking for rabbits”.
According to the defendants, they were “driving along slowly, looking in the verge to see if there were rabbits in the field” when the pit bull “jumped out of the window and made her way over to the badger”.
However, Mr Marley said the defendants had clearly encouraged the pit bull to attack the badger.
District judge Adrian Lower told the defendants: “The four of you had been involved, to a greater or lesser extent, in causing suffering to a protected animal.
“I find it rather difficult (to believe) you simply came to North Yorkshire to take some rabbits with dogs. I’m quite sure there are plenty of rabbits much closer to home.
“The fact is that one of the dogs began worrying a badger, a protected animal, and you did nothing to prevent (the attack).”
He added: “The Pit Bull terrier ended up killing the badger which may well have had an effect on the sett itself.
“I’ve no idea whether the badger was male or female, or whether there were younger badgers in the sett, but one can only imagine what effect this offence could have had on other badgers in the community.”
Mr Lower gave all four defendants a 12-month community order and banned them from entering the whole of North Yorkshire for the next 12 months.
He banned all four men from keeping or owning dogs for five years and disqualified them from driving, also for 12 months, because the Jeep had been used for criminal purposes. Each of them must pay a £114 statutory surcharge and £85 prosecution costs.
The driving ban meant that Parkinson would lose his job because he needed his licence to travel to work.
Crosby, Parkinson and Tyres were ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work. Smithson, who was 17 when the offence occurred, was fined £200.56.
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