Higher sentencing secures a win for Scottish badgers
- Badger Trust Staff Team
- Aug 16, 2022
- 3 min read
Gamekeeper imprisoned for badger baiting after Scottish sentencing rightfully increased to fit the crime.
A recent case brought good news for Scottish badgers, as Gamekeeper Rhys Davies was sentenced to eight months imprisonment and fined £1,800 for crimes linked to badger baiting. Davies, 28, from Gwynedd, north Wales, was working as a gamekeeper for the Millden Estate in Scotland at the time of his arrest. Davies has since resigned from his post, and the Millden Estate has formally declared his crimes against wildlife were unknown to them.
Davies' attempts to professionally print his photographic ‘trophies’ led to his arrest. A photo lab technician reported Davies to the SSPCA upon seeing horrific images of dog and badger fighting and a posed display featuring Davies with dead badgers and his bloodied and mutilated terriers.
A resulting police raid on his tied Estate cottage in October 2019 unveiled the extent of the animal abuse. Dogs with hideous injuries were held captive outside in squalid conditions while inside was littered with dead wildlife and unsecured firearms. Veterinarians later confirmed that the dogs had significant injuries synonymous with lengthy and repeated fights with badgers. Facial and bodily mutiliations had been DIY-treated at home, using unauthorised medicines and staple guns, to avoid engaging with veterinarians who would report him for animal cruelty offences.
However, most striking about this case is not the lengths to which Davies went to both privately celebrate and publicly conceal his passion for a barbaric bloodsport, but the sentence he received – one of the heaviest sentences seen for charges related to organised badger baiting.
Davies' eight months imprisonment and £1,800 fine were secured under the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006, legislation which in 2020 has since increased sentencing to five years imprisonment and unlimited fines.
The ruling was well received by the SSPCA and its Chief Supt, Mike Flynn, explained:
“A custodial sentence sends a clear message to anyone who wants to use dogs to bait and maim wildlife – they will be punished for it.”
“Wildlife crime is a scourge: no animal deserves to be subjected to pain and suffering.”
The fact that this badger baiting crime was prosecuted under Animal Welfare legislation (for injuries to the dogs) and not the Protection of Badgers Act 1992 (PBA) shows that the PBA is currently less effective at protecting badgers from persecution, despite that being its primary objective. The Davies case also shows that increased sentencing does help to secure prosecutions and acts as a true deterrent for brutal crimes against wildlife.
This is why Badger Trust is campaigning for increased protection for badgers by strengthening the Protection of Badgers Act.
PBA30 key asks
Badger Trust is calling on the government to:
Extend the maximum sentence for convictions under the Protection of Badgers Act (1992) from six months to five years, bringing it into line with Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Act 2021. This means offenders would be faced with a five-year sentence for the abuse of a badger, in the same way as they would for the abuse of a dog used in the same crime
Make wildlife crimes like badger persecution notifiable to the Home Office, so that the real level of this type of crime can be accurately assessed, reported on, and tackled. At present wildlife crimes are not recorded in this way, and there are no official national statistics. Increasing sentencing would, by default, make a crime under the Protection of Badgers Act (1992) a notifiable offence.
Further information:
PBA30 Campaign: tougher sentencing to protect badgers
