Badger-baiting gang trapped after pictures were posted on website

Police obtained warrants and searched several houses after a tip-off to view a page on the popular Bebo site.

As a result of examining the gruesome images, they recovered a number of dogs and two members of the gang appeared at Jedburgh Sheriff Court yesterday. They admitted digging at badger setts, an offence which carries a maximum three-year jail sentence.

Sean Dodds, 17, who had downloaded images of a badger being killed as a profile onto his Bebo page, also pleaded guilty to willfully killing a badger.

It is the first time someone in Scotland has been convicted for deliberately killing a badger with a dog.

Dodds pulled the badger from the sett hole by its tail and then kicked it before a terrier called Raid killed the animal.

One witness claimed Dodds had struck the badger with a spade – a charge he denied.

The part-time poultry worker, and unemployed Kyle Lawrie, 19, both from Hawick, admitted digging for a badger at a sett at Acreknowe reservoir near their home town in October 2006.

Lawrie pleaded guilty to a similar offence at woodland near Wilton Dean, Hawick, in November 2006 while Dodds admitted willfully allowing a dog to attack and kill a badger on that occasion.

Wildlife prosecutor John Barclay described how in October gamekeeper Richard Brown, 61, was teaching a friend to feed pheasants when they heard noises from nearby woods and went to investigate.

They saw a youth standing over a badger sett and were aware of a second youth in the area. They also heard the sound of barking from underground.

The men, who later identified the youths as Dodds and Lawrie, argued with the pair before they made off.

Mr Barclay said the incident was not reported at the time

but Constable Mark Rafferty, a wildlife crime officer with Lothian and Borders Police, was given information in January 2007 about the badger-baiting gang.

Mr Barclay said: "He was told Dodds and Lawrie were involved in digging for badgers and that images of these activities were posted on an internet site.

"Investigations were carried out and there were pictures of dogs attacking a badger on Dodds' Bebo website.

"As a result of seeing this, warrants were obtained to search their homes and a number of dogs were seized by police – a mixture of lurchers, terriers and mongrels."

Police officers traced two other youths who there alongside Lawrie and Dodds. They described how Lawrie was digging for the badger at a sett and how it was killed.

Dodds in his own interview said the badger took two or three minutes to die while being attacked by the dog, but another witness said it was more like 15 to 20 minutes, according to Mr Barclay.

He went on to say the terrier called Raid was later examined by a vet and found to have wounds underneath his chin.

Dodds's lawyer Rhona MacLeod described her client as "immature" and insisted he had downloaded the badger-killing images from a website.

Ms MacLeod insisted: "He regrets the whole incident. He is ashamed at what he did. As bizarre as it may sound, he has always been seen as a dog lover."

Lawrie's lawyer Alison Marshall added: "I understand that Kyle Lawrie and Sean Dodds were influenced by others."

Sheriff Kevin Drummond deferred sentence on the two until 24 January.

NEED FOR CHANGE IN THE LAW

BADGER baiting was first outlawed in 1835, the same year that Britain abolished the slave trade.

The present law was amended by the Nature Conservation Act 2004 so that digging around a badger sett is now punishable by three years in prison or a fine. However, the taking or killing of a badger carries a lesser maximum sentence of six months' detention or a 5,000 fine.

At Jedburgh Sheriff Court yesterday, Sheriff Kevin Drummond suggested this might need to be changed.

"Someone, somewhere needs to look at that," he said.