Three men who were caught on camera using dogs to chase and kill terrified wild hares in Stirling have been sentenced.
Euan Anderson, Nicky Grant and Jordan Steel, had pleaded guilty to charges under the Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act 2002.
The trio - who posed with the dead animals in gruesome trophy pictures - were fined a combined total of £5025 and banned from keeping dogs for two years.
The court heard Anderson and Steel used dogs to hunt and kill hares on land known as Black Box near Chalmerston Road, Stirling and days later Anderson and Grant again hunted the wild animals near West Drip Farm.
The fiscal depute told Stirling Sheriff Court the offences were discovered when Anderson and Grant were spotted with two dark coloured lurchers in fields near Chalmerston Road, Stirling, on December 27, 2021.
A witness sent a message to the local WhatsApp chat.
After receiving the message, a resident jumped into her car and drove to Chalmerston Road where she saw a black Audi A3, later confirmed as Anderson’s car, parked next to Stirling Bridge in the layby on Chalmerston Road and took a picture.
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Another witness filmed and took photos of them as they walked through a field holding a dead hare and saw Anderson’s black Audi parked close to the field.
The incident was reported to police who recovered the dead hare from a hedgerow. Further enquiries led to the searches under warrants on 31 March, 2022.
Items seized from Grant’s Lanark address included mobile phones, clothing, lamps, dog trackers, slip wire, and dog leads.
The dogs seen in the photos and videos were found in the kennels in the back garden. Police took DNA from these dogs, Rocky and Pablo, and they were photographed.
A mobile phone, a deer hunter jumper and a hooded game jumper were seized from Anderson’s home.
The dead hare was taken to the Wildlife DNA forensics unit at the Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture unit (SASA) for DNA samples to be taken to compare to samples taken from the two dogs. The dog DNA found on the hare was a profile match for Rocky.
Police analysis of Anderson’s phone found photographs and videos of hare coursing in the morning and afternoon of December 27, 2021. They also found photographs of hare coursing on 24 December showing another man who police were able to identify as Jordan Steel.
Debbie Carroll, who leads on wildlife and environmental crime for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), said: “Hare coursing is a cruel and wholly illegal act and I welcome the conviction of these three men and the message it should send to anyone involved in this barbaric crime.
“This investigation and prosecution was the result of the actions of the local community and the excellent partnership working between Police Scotland, SASA and the Procurator Fiscal’s specialist prosecutors.
“As illustrated in this case, reporting such offending to the police can ensure that those, like Anderson, Grant and Steel, who hunt hares with dogs are held to account.”
At Stirling Sheriff Court on Monday 23-year-old Anderson, of Larkhall, was fined £1875 and banned from owning or keeping dogs for two years. He was also ordered to forfeit the mobile phone he used to capture the offences following a motion by the prosecutor.
Steel (30), of Larkhall, and Grant (26), of Kirkmuirhill, Lanark, had each been fined £1575 when they pleaded guilty in April.
Grant and Steel were both banned from owning or keeping dogs for two years and, following a motion by the prosecutor, Grant was ordered to forfeit two dog trackers, three lamps, two leads and a slip wire.
Anderson and Grant’s not guilty pleas to a charge alleging they had been in control of lurcher type dogs on December 27 near West Drip Farm Cottage, 2021, which worried sheep by allowing them to be at large while not kept on a lead or under close control, were accepted by the Crown. And Steel’s not guilty plea to a charge of breaching a disqualification order imposed at Hamilton Sheriff Court on March 1, 2017, disqualifying him from owning, keeping or dealing in any animal for a period of five years from that date, was accepted by the Crown.
