A huntsman has been convicted after the hounds in his charge killed a fox during a New Year's Day meeting.
George Adams, 66, a member of the Fitzwilliam Hunt, denied an offence under section 1 of the Hunting Act 2004, namely that his dogs were used for hunting a wild mammal that was not exempt. He was found guilty of the offence after a two-day trial at Peterborough Magistrates' Court. Adams was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay £950 in prosecution costs.
His co-accused John Mease, 45, was found not guilty of an identical offence, after the court heard that he uses a golden eagle to hunt foxes, which is exempt under the legislation. The court also found Mr Mease not guilty of unnecessary cruelty when he dispatched an injured fox by driving a knife through its eye.
The charges related to events on 1st January 2016.
Video footage filmed by Stephen Milton, a hunt saboteur, showed the 40-hound hunt in a field near Wansford and picked up the sound of a hunting horn. The pack gave chase and eventually killed the fox. Significantly, according to Mr Milton, there were no attempts to call of the pursuing hounds once they were on the fox's scent.
Asked why he had failed to release the eagle to kill the fox, Mr Mease told the court that it was unsafe to do so with hunt saboteurs in the field.
Mr Adams denied seeing the fox in the moments before it was killed. He denied that it was his intention to let the hounds kill the fox, saying that the eagle was available for that very purpose.
A spokesman for Cambridgeshire Police said: "We take breaches of the Hunting Act very seriously and we will do all we can to bring people to justice who do not comply with the law."
Since its inception, there have only been a handful of convictions under the Hunting Act 2004. In order to secure a conviction, the prosecution has to prove that the accused was actively participating in the hunting of an identified wild mammal.
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