Monthly Archives: December 2020

Equine Abuse, horse traders, horses and ponies, Pet Profiteering, Traveller Animal Crimes, Worst of the Worst

Bishop Auckland, County Durham: Derek Wildish and Alison Hall

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CONVICTED (2020) | Derek ‘Deka’ Wildish, born c. 1971, and Alison Hall (aka Alison Crowe), born c. 1968, both of High Road, Middlestone, Bishop Auckland DL14 8AE – hid a dying horse under a pile of branches

Derek Wildish and Alison Hall
Alison Hall

Derek Wildish, a horse trader specialising in Welsh cobs, and Alison Hall were banned from keeping horses after a bay gelding was found collapsed on the ground, barely alive and covered with branches.

An RSPCA inspector who went to investigate concerns about the welfare of two horses, kept between Bishop Auckland and Spennymoor, found one so poorly he was unable to get up off the ground and appeared to have been hidden under the branches. Sadly the horse, known as Brian, had to be euthanised to end his suffering.

The other, a stallion called Janton, was removed from the scene by police and has made a good recovery.

Alison Hall

Owners Wildish and Hall were convicted of allowing their two horses to fall into a state of neglect and causing unnecessary suffering to the animals.

Hall pleaded guilty and Wildish was found guilty after a trial.

The court heard that the RSPCA was contacted in February 2019 by locals who had concerns for two horses.

Derek Wildish

An inspector visited the location where the horses were being kept on Low Road, Middlestone, between Bishop Auckland and Spennymoor, and found one horse collapsed, covered in branches, and a second in a poor body condition.

Sentencing:
Wildish – 18 weeks’ imprisonment, suspended for two years; 250 hours of unpaid work; ordered to pay £822.
Hall – 14 weeks’ imprisonment suspended for two years; 25 rehabilitation days; ordered to pay £262.
Both defendants were disqualified from keeping horses for seven years.

Northern Echo

Dogs, Equine Abuse, farms / smallholdings, Food Production, horses and ponies, Multiple Species, Serial Animal Abusers

Inverurie, Aberdeenshire: Serial animal abuser William Cassie

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#MostEvil | William Cassie, born c, 1956, of Portstown Farm, Keithhall, Inverurie AB51 6HL – left animals emaciated, suffering illness and “roaring for food”

William Cassie
William Cassie

The charges against William Cassie, who is already banned from keeping equines until August 2023, related to his care of animals at Mill of Kinmuck, near Ellon, Lower Wanford Farm in Alvah, near Banff; his home at Portstown in Keithhall; and Mains of Montcoffer in Macduff between August 16 and December 17, 2018..

Authorities seized cows and dogs during raids in December 2018, finding animals which were dead or had to be put down because of their condition.

On 4 December 2020 Cassie was found guilty of four charges. He initially faced 12 charges when he went on trial earlier in 2020, but two were dropped and he was found not guilty of six others.

After reviewing the evidence at Aberdeen Sheriff Court, Sheriff Margaret Hodge ruled Cassie had failed to provide adequate care for a cow with ailments including severe pneumonia, which it could have been suffering from for three weeks without intervention.

She said Cassie had failed to properly care for another cow, kept in “fairly terrible” conditions, which was so ill it had to be euthanised.

A post-mortem found it weighed around 45 stone – less than half that of a typical healthy adult.

Cassie was found guilty of failing to provide adequate care for a malnourished calf which was “roaring for food” and isolated from its mother in a dark shed.

He was also found to have kept dogs and cattle in hazardous areas with faeces, rusty metal, scrap machinery and a collapsed building.

Defence agent George Mathers told the court his client “wants to be able to continue farming and, at the age of 64, isn’t considering retirement.”

Scottish SPCA chief inspector Alison Simpson suggested the punishment did not go far enough.

She said: “We have worked with the local authority, who submitted this case, in the past to investigate the welfare of animals under the accused’s care.

“Given Cassie’s history of failing to ensure the welfare of animals which were his responsibility, we are disappointed with the sentence given.

“We have had dealings with Cassie over a number of years, including successfully prosecuting him for equine neglect in 2018.

“Cassie is now banned from owning cattle and horses, but we question his fitness to look after any species of animal.”

Sentencing: Cassie was fined £3,000 and banned from owning or keeping cattle for 12 months. This is in addition to his five-year ban on keeping equines, which runs until August 2023.

Press and Journal

Dogs

Ossett, Wakefield: Maria Fletcher

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CONVICTED (2020) | Maria Fletcher aka Maria Blake, born 28/03/1981, of Taylor Close, Ossett WF5 0SY – left one of her dogs with a chronic untreated skin condition

Convicted animal abuser Maria Fletcher
“Abrasive” animal abuser Maria Fletcher only received a three-year ban despite failing to take her dog to the vet

Maria Fletcher was charged with causing unnecessary suffering to her 12-year-old Staffordshire bull terrier, Charlie, which was proved in her absence.

The court heard that RSPCA inspector Kris Walker was called to Fletcher’s home on May 3, 2020, where he found six dogs being kept in a messy garden, and was concerned for a white Staffordshire bull terrier who appeared to have fur loss and sore skin.

Elderly Staffy Charlie, who was left to suffer with a painful untreated skin condition.
Elderly Staffy Charlie was left to suffer with a painful untreated skin condition.

Inspector Walker said: “Charlie had hair loss from her middle downwards and was a little reddened but not scabby. Her owner, Ms Fletcher, said she’d run out of shampoo to treat it and that she was registered at a local vet. I issued a warning notice and asked her to clean up the garden and take Charlie to the vets.

“More than three weeks later I contacted the local clinic she claimed to use and they told me they had no dog of that name from that address registered with them. I tried another local vet who also didn’t have Charlie’s records.

“I returned to the house in Taylor Close but there was no reply at the door. I returned the following day and, again, the following week.

“When Ms Fletcher answered the door she was abrasive and yelled in my face that Charlie had been to the vets. But she was clearly balding, reddened and very itchy so she gave me permission to take her to see a vet.”

Convicted animal abuser Maria Fletcher

Vets determined that Charlie was suffering from a chronic, untreated skin condition and police attended to seize her and place her into the care of the RSPCA.

Inspector Walker said: “Vets found her skin was scurfy and thickened, and she had a large patch of alopecia. It smelt very yeasty and Charlie was extremely itchy.

“They prescribed some medication and a follow-up appointment one month later showed that her skin and fur were both looking really healthy, and she’d even put on some weight.”

Despite 15 separate attempts, Inspector Walker was unable to arrange an interview with Fletcher.

He said: “As Ms Fletcher refused to cooperate with our investigation or sign Charlie over into our care we felt it was necessary to take the case to court in order to seek a disqualification order to ensure Charlie would not return to the home and to prevent any further neglect of her or the other dogs.”

There were no welfare concerns for her remaining five dogs – all French bulldogs – but she said she was struggling to cope with them so two were signed over into the RSPCA’s care. She claims the remaining dogs have all been rehomed.

Charlie went to RSPCA Leeds, Wakefield & District branch where she spent some time recovering and spent her days in the office with staff.

Although her skin recovered well, her fur never grew back fully.

She was placed with a foster family who have since decided to formally adopt her. The family say she loves going for long walks, visiting the seaside and has really come out of her shell.

Sentencing: £150 in costs; three-year disqualification order keeping all animals (expires December 2023).

Wakefield Express

Animal Abandonment, Reptiles / Exotics

Sholing, Southampton: Dominic Ash

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CONVICTED (2020) | Dominic Ash, born c. 1989, of Sullivan Road, Southampton SO19 – abandoned a neglected snake at a barbershop

Police mugshot of Dominic Ash


Dominic Ash, who has at least one previous criminal conviction, dumped the two-metre long boa constrictor in a tank with no water.

The reptile was found by police lying in “sludge” at the Office Barber Shop in Ashley Road, Poole.

Snake abandoned by Dominic Ash

Ash was charged with causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal by failing to provide constant access to an adequate supply of clean fresh drinking water.

He had been due to appear before magistrates in January 2020 but failed to attend and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

At a subsequent court appearance he pleaded guilty to the offence, which took place between May 31 and June 5, 2019.

RSPCA inspector Jo Story investigated the incident for the animal welfare charity.

She said: “Police gained entry to the shop and once inside I could see the large vivarium with a common boa inside it. There was no water source and a sludge at the bottom of the vivarium.

“There was nowhere for the snake to hide.”

A vet examined the snake and found that she was dehydrated. It’s not known if she survived.

Sentencing: ordered to pay a total of £432. Banned from owning animals for five years (expires December 2025).

Daily Echo

Small Furries, Violent and Sadistic Pet Abusers, Worst of the Worst

Gunnislake, East Cornwall: Gary Doidge

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CONVICTED (2020) | Gary Doidge, born 6 February 1993, of 5 Sims Terrace, Gunnislake PL18 9DQ – poured boiling water onto rats trapped in a plastic bin

Gary Doidge and still from horrific video footage

Gary Doidge pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering, following a prosecution by the RSPCA.

Doidge admitted pouring boiling water from a kettle onto living rats who had been captured and contained in a plastic bin at a recycling depot in the Hayedown industrial estate in Tavistock on August 10, 2020.

A filmed clip, which had been taken at the time of the incident, circulated on social media and in the media shortly afterwards.

The video showed Doidge take a kettle to the bin, which had steam coming out of the spout, indicating it had recently boiled.

The water from the kettle was then poured onto the rats, who could be heard squealing, before a lid was placed over the top of the bin

A vet, with more than 35 years’ experience in a general veterinary practice and expertise in research into rodents, reviewed the video footage.

In a statement she said: “It is highly unlikely that they were dead at this stage, although they would have been suffering terribly. The likelihood is that they were alive and suffering, though not moving, though we cannot be sure how long their pain and suffering would have gone on for.

“Humans and rats have the same basic physiology and similar organs. Both have nervous systems that work in the same way, and both react similarly to infection and injury.”

RSPCA Inspector Claire Ryder, who investigated for the charity, said: “The 2006 Animal Welfare Act applies to all vertebrates and puts a duty of care for the welfare of all animals under human control, even just for a temporary basis as was the case with these poor rats who had been captured and held in a bin, unable to escape.

“The footage of this incident is difficult to watch, no animal should be treated like that.

“It is an offence to cause unnecessary suffering, and by pouring boiling water on live animals caused them suffering which could have been avoided.”

Doidge pleaded guilty with burning two wild mammals – namely wild rats – with intent to inflict unnecessary suffering contrary to the Wild Mammals (Protection) Act of 1996.

Sentencing: 12-week prison sentence suspended for 12 months; 80 hours of unpaid work; ordered to pay £300 in costs and a £128 victim surcharge.

Plymouth Live