January 19, 2018 9.50 am This story is over 74 months old

Hare coursing dogs to be rehomed after owners prosecuted

Owners were found guilty of hare coursing.
Spencer is one of the hare coursing dogs to be rehomed.

Two dogs will be rehomed after their owners were found guilty of hare coursing in Digby Fen.

Lincolnshire Police caught John Langan, 31, of The Hawthorns, Great Ayton, North Yorkshire and Thomas Jaffray, 34, of The Greenway, Middlesbrough hare coursing last September.

On Friday, January 12 both were found guilty of a hare coursing offence.

This is the first time that one of the county’s courts has given Lincolnshire Police permission to find the dogs a permanent new home – rather than having to return them to their owners.

At present the dogs, Lucky and Spencer who are both lurchers, are being cared for in a kennel where they have been since the two men were arrested.

The court imposed fines of £180, £300 in costs and a £30 victim surcharge on each of the men, and both were disqualified from driving for a couple of months.

Both men are also banned from being on private land in Lincolnshire with lurchers or similar dogs or be with people who have these canine companions.

Chief Superintendent Mark Housley said: “We’ve waited for a result like this for some time but I’m very pleased now we have got it.

“Here in Lincolnshire we know that by seizing dogs we stop people wanting to come here for hare coursing, and it also prevents all the violence towards farmers and the damage to their property that goes with it.

“The welfare of the dogs is also very important to us. Only a week ago we came across a dog that had been left in a field to die as the hare coursers left her so they could escape from police officers.

“Our officers were horrified to see she had been fatally struck on her head. We will continue to make every effort to tackle this cruel and supposed ‘sport’, and get the animals into the caring home a dog should have.”