CONVICTED (2018) | Laurence Brown, born. c. 1958, of Derwent Avenue, Falkirk FK1 5HZ – trapped his neighbour’s cat in an illegal and inhumane fox snare.
Brown told the court he set a fox-snare for his neighbour’s cat because she wouldn’t stop fouling in his hot tub
The lorry driver said he had tried screens, pepper, and even lion dung after the feline began to “repeatedly” defecate in the heated outdoor whirlpool.
After these attempts failed to stop the cat, Brown bought a snare on the Internet and set it where the animal was squeezing through the palings of the fence that divided his garden from the cat’s owner’s garden.
Prosecutor Susan Campbell said: ‘His garden backs onto their garden, and the gardens are separated by a six foot fence which has spaces which the cat can fit through.
‘On 22nd June the owner of the cat heard a yowling noise coming from the area of the fence.
‘He saw his cat dashing and realised that she had a piece of wire round her neck.
‘It was a loop of yellow wire with a small metal fixing and there was no stopper on the device which would have prevented it from continuing to tighten.
‘He got some scissors and cut it off. The cat was not injured.’
Ms Campbell said the cat’s owner challenged Brown about the incident, who claimed he was ‘trying to catch foxes’.
In court, Brown pleaded guilty to setting an illegal and inhumane snare and trapping the cat, whereby she became entangled and unable to free herself, causing her unnecessary suffering.
He also admitted contravening the Wildlife and Countryside Act by setting a snare ‘calculated to cause unnecessary suffering’ to any animal coming into contact with it, in that it had no ‘stop’ on its noose.
Sheriff James MacDonald told Brown: ‘You had a limited record when you appeared before me, but you now have a conviction for animal cruelty, and that will live with you.
‘Not only that, you will have to live with the consequences of your actions – not least of which is knowing that your neighbour knows that you set a trap for his cat, which on the basis of the narration given to me by the Crown, can only have been with the intent to either maim that animal or at least cause it significant injury.
‘Fortunately for you it was unhurt, but I should tell you this: Parliament intended these offences to be taken seriously, and that is why Parliament provided me with the power to send you to prison for up to 12 months.
‘You should understand that if there is any repeat of this sort of behaviour, the court will undoubtedly regard it seriously.’
Sentencing | Fined £300.