ACQUITTED (2018) | notorious fox hunter and likely badger baiter Neil Frederick Pinkerton, born 19 March 1988, of 26 Clandeboye Street, Belfast BT5 4QT – cleared of cruelty offences related to animal fighting

Sadistic Neil Pinkerton posted graphic images and video of his terrier dog, known as Judy, engaged in a savage fight with a fox, to the private Facebook group North Coast Lurchers on the Beam.

In the clip, the fox can be seen locked muzzle to muzzle with Judy after the pair were dug out from the wild animal’s underground den.

Pinkerton was charged after a member of the public contacted an anti-hunting group, which then passed on the information to police.

The father-of-two was accused of two counts of causing unnecessary suffering to the dog and fox both on December 28, 2016.

He faced a third charge of causing the terrier unnecessary suffering by failing to treat or get her “adequate’’ veterinary treatment on January 25, 2017, the date she was seized by police at his home.

But he walked out of Belfast Crown Court after his one-day trial was brought to an end when Belfast Recorder Judge David McFarland directed the jury to acquit him.

Judge McFarland told the jury the fox clearly had the dog by the muzzle and “no suffering was caused to the fox’’.

He also said evidence from a vet who examined Judy after she was seized stated she would have been “in discomfort”, but added the pair were only attached for a short period of time.

The decision sparked outrage from anti-hunting groups, including the League Against Cruel Sports NI. Further shock was caused in April 2018 when it was announced that Judy was to be returned to Pinkerton.

Janice Watts, senior public affairs officer for the League Against Cruel Sports NI, told local newspaper Sunday Life: “We are appalled and sickened that Judy is being returned to Pinkerton given how she suffered at his hands.

“The pictures of Judy’s horrific injuries speak for themselves, yet our justice system is allowing her to go back to Pinkerton.

“The League Against Cruel Sports and PSNI worked very hard to ensure that the person behind this awful brutality was appropriately punished.

“We would like to thank the PSNI for their hard work and assistance throughout this case.”

Sunday Life previously reported how bloodthirsty Pinkerton relished getting his dogs to kill foxes in a closed Facebook group.

He wrote in the North Coast Lurchers Under the Beam page: “Fantastic hunt today, dug (a) lovely fox for wee bitch…big f* killed the thing in (the) hole, crushed its head. Fs. Lol.”

In another exchange seen by Sunday Life, he boasted to a fellow member: “That lurcher killing them but to kill and draw, fs!”.

Pinkerton also shared a graphic video of one hunt and sickening images of both the dead fox and the savaged, bleeding dog, captioned: “One’s going to feel this in the morning, one’s not”.

Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom where hunting with dogs is still legal.

In December 2021 a private members bill to ban all hunting with dogs in Northern Ireland was defeated with MLA Jonathan Buckley arguing that an outright ban would amount to a suppression of a dog’s “basic and natural instinct”.

BelfastLive 27/03/2018
Belfast Telegraph 24/04/2018

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Belfast Live 26/03/2018

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Additional Information

Pinkerton has an alias Facebook account in the name Harry John Digging.

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Update June 2022

Northern Irish newspaper the Sunday Life reported that Pinkerton had dodged cruelty charges despite a raft of evidence gathered by the USPCA, League Against Cruelty Sports and Naturewatch.

Photographs, video footage and extracts from private chat groups were gathered in the hope of building a prosecution against Pinkerton.

PSNI raided his small terraced house where they seized 12 dogs kept in cages in the front garden and kitchen.

Unbelievably Belfast City Council declined to bring charges against Pinkerton, and his dogs – some of which had sustained fighting injuries – were returned to him. Pinkerton allegedly live-streamed the return of the dogs on Facebook.

The Sunday Life described Pinkerton as ranking “among the more senior hunters in Northern Ireland despite his relatively young age”.

In July 2018 Pinkerton agreed to give up five of the 10 dogs he owned after they were found housed in a derelict shop in east Belfast by animal welfare officers from Belfast City Council.

Update | October 2022

On 4 October 2022 BBC Northern Ireland broadcast ‘Spotlight – Hunting with Dogs’ which featured Pinkerton.

Investigators showed some of the evidence they had gathered from Pinkerton’s social media accounts – one in his own name and another in the name ‘Harry John Digging’. This included posts on shadowy online groups containing coded language for badgers (e.g. “pigs”, “black and white”, “humbug” “Newcastle”, “Geordies”) which are protected in Northern Ireland as they are in the rest of the UK.

Pinkerton had posted photographs of various dogs with distinctive facial injuries (significant loss of tissue, jaws bitten off) which were more consistent with badger baiting than fox hunting.

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Update | March 2024

Pinkerton received a suspended prison sentence after his dog bit an 11-year-old boy on the leg..

Pinkerton, still of 26 Clandeboye Street in Belfast, was ordered to pay legal and court costs and compensation, as well as the suspended sentence.

The prosecution was taken by Belfast City Council andPinkerton was convicted under Article 29(2) of The Dogs (Northern Ireland) Order 1983.

He received a four-month prison sentence, suspended for one year and was required to pay £150 legal and court costs and compensation order totalling £250 to the victim.

It was also ordered the dog be destroyed unless kept confined in a building, shed, yard or other enclosure from which he/she cannot escape, fitted with a muzzle sufficient to prevent the dog biting any person and kept under control.

Belfast Telegraph