A former huntsman has been given a suspended jail sentence after a court heard how he illegally set his dogs on foxes and badgers “for his own gratification”.
Sam Staniland (date of birth: 20.08.1997), of unknown current address, boasted about the wild animals killed and shared mobile phone photos and footage of their torment.
The RSPCA’s Special Operations Unite (SOU) recovered three Patterdale terriers – Scandal, Roxy and Spud – who suffered injuries after being forced to fight the protected mammals.
Magistrates heard that the practice involves foxes and badgers which are dug out of earths and setts by small terriers.
They are then savaged to death by large lurcher-type dogs or simply killed by their owners – who often pose with the dead bodies afterwards.
Joel Wootten, RSPCA barrister, told Norwich Magistrates’ Court: “This is a case in which the defendant has repeatedly used dogs to fight with wild animals for his own gratification.
“This has caused suffering not only to dogs in his care, but also to protected wild animals.
“Owing to his role as a legal trail huntsman, the defendant was in a position of trust and responsibility. In committing these offences, he has breached that trust.”
He added: “The only way to protect animals from this defendant in the future is to ban him from owning them for life.”
At sentencing on April 10, magistrates gave him a 26-week jail term suspended for 18 months and banned him from keeping dogs for five years.
He was also ordered to carry out 150 hours’ unpaid work, including 20 Rehabilitation Activity Requirement days, and ordered to pay costs of £1200 and a victim surcharge of £128.
Staniland pleaded guilty to three charges under the Animal Welfare Act 2006, relating to his failure to prevent dogs from fighting with foxes and badgers.
The first charge related to failing to protect Patterdales Scandal, Roxy and Spud, from pain, suffering and injury, by not preventing them fighting with foxes and/or badgers.
The second accused him of causing unnecessary suffering to a foxhound by failing to prevent it from fighting with a fox.
He also admitted failing to protect two black lurcher-type dogs from pain, suffering, injury or disease by failing to prevent them fighting with a badger.
The court heard Staniland’s mobile ‘phone was seized after he was arrested for unrelated matters in February 2023 – and was found to contain evidence of fox and badger persecution..
A video clip showed a fox and a dog fighting at the bottom of a storm drain at a fishery near St Osyth, Essex. The fox bites the dog in a head-shaking motion.
Another clip showed the defendant shining a torch on two lurchers attacking a badger, in a practice described by the SOU as “lamping”. Instead of pulling them off, he films the fight.
A still photo recovered from the ‘phone showed five men posing at the bottom of a huge hole in the ground, in front of a mechanical digger. Two were holding dead foxes.
SOU Chief Inspector Ian Briggs said in a statement: “Although uncommon I have been involved in a number of investigations where diggers have been used to aid the excavation of badger setts and fox earths.
“This photograph of a number of individuals ‘in the dig’ and presenting their dead prey for the camera is a typical trophy photo that I have come across in almost every investigation of this type I have done.
“The image is a form of celebration of the work undertaken by the dogs and their owners to get to whichever prey animal they are targeting.”
Text messages on the device included one with a photograph of a man standing in a hole in which the defendant told a contact that he had “taken” a badger and its litter.
The texts – littered with fox emojis and pigs for badgers – says he used Roxy to attack one badger and Scandal to attack three. On a separate occasion, he says Roxy went “jaw to jaw” with a badger.
Staniland was arrested after SOU investigators, accompanied by two police officers and a vet, served a warrant at his then home, Kennels House, Hadleigh, Suffolk, on April 20, 2023.
Scandal, Roxy and Spud were checked by the vet and taken away, and the head, skin and other remains of a fox were recovered from a bin.
