Press launch from Scottish SPCA (seventh March 2023):
Penicuik man receives ban from retaining animals for 5 years after trapping and killing magpies
Alexander Hamilton was sentenced to a five-year ban from proudly owning and retaining animals and 100 hours of group service at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Tuesday, 5 March.
64-year-old Hamilton of Windsor Drive, Penicuik pled responsible to trapping magpies in unlawful traps in his backyard inflicting them misery. The birds had been additionally disadvantaged of sufficient meals water and shelter.
Scottish SPCA Chief Inspector Mark Rafferty, Special Investigation Unit, mentioned:
“On 29 July 2022 our animal helpline acquired a name from a resident in Windsor Drive, Penicuik reporting two magpies caught in cages within the again backyard of a neighbour.
We attended that very same day however discovered nobody at home. On wanting over the fence into the again backyard, we noticed a Larsen Mate lure and two different cages. The two cages had no appropriate shelter, meals or water and no seen tag hooked up to them.
We attended later that day on the tackle and the occupier, Hamilton, allow us to into his backyard. We discovered a useless magpie mendacity on the paving slabs within the again backyard, simply contained in the gate.
In the underside nook of the backyard, screened off from the remainder of the backyard by a big unsecured fencing panel, was an space the place there have been three traps.
The first lure was a Larsen Mate lure containing one Magpie. The chook was in a distressed state on account of being confined inside the lure and was in poor situation. This lure was of a manufactured kind, and was particularly designed for the aim of catching focused species.
Crow cage traps and Larsen traps are chook traps used to catch varied territorial members of the crow household mostly utilized by gamekeepers or sheep farmers.
Trap operators are answerable for traps carrying their Trap Registration Number and all traps used should solely show a single tag or signal exhibiting one NatureScot Trap Registration Number. These situations weren’t being adhered to rendering this lure unlawful.
The second lure contained one magpie and there was additionally a cage containing a magpie in poor physique situation.
The magpie inside this cage was distressed and managed to squeeze via the mesh on the ground of the cage and enter an area beneath the adjoining shed. The chook might be heard scraping and pecking on the wood flooring of the shed and was clearly distressed.
The birds had been launched from the cages and the traps and had been launched again into the wild.
We’re happy with the five-year ban on the sentencing consequence. All animals needs to be protected against struggling and this consists of magpies. Our workforce deal with these circumstances severely and it’s good to see that the courts share this view. We will proceed to analyze the sort of offending, to make sure individuals like Hamilton are caught and stopped from additional cruelty acts. I wish to thank the Procurator Fiscal Karon Rollo and the Wildlife and Environmental Crime Unit.
If anybody is worried about an animal, they will contact our confidential animal helpline on 03000 999 999.”
ENDS
This is an effective conviction for the Scottish SPCA, who reported Hamilton to the Crown Office utilizing their powers beneath the Animal Health & Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006 and while not having help from Police Scotland (opposite to MSP Edward Mountain’s ludicrous claims that the SSPCA lacks the {qualifications} and coaching to implement the regulation).
There seems to be to have been some plea bargaining on the sentencing. According to this article in Edinburgh Evening News, Hamilton’s defence lawyer advised the court docket that Hamilton owned two gundogs and requested for any animal ban imposed by the court docket to exclude these animals.
Sheriff Gillian Sharp obliged by sentencing Hamilton to hold out 100 hours of unpaid work in the neighborhood and disqualified him from proudly owning or retaining animals, with the exemption of his two dogs, for 5 years.
Hamilton is reportedly now not a gamekeeper and is now employed as a labourer. His conviction means he can now not function beneath the phrases of a General Licence till the conviction is taken into account spent.
