CONVICTED (2021) | serial wildlife persecutor John Alan Langan, born June 1986, of 12 The Hawthorns, Great Ayton, Middlesbrough TS9 6BA and Thomas Agar McDonald, born c. 1986, most recently of Riverside Nurseries, Stokesley, Middlesbrough TS9 5JQ – caught hare coursing.
On the afternoon of Saturday 23 January 2021, a vigilant member of the public called police to report that poachers were chasing hares with a dog in a field near Chapel Haddlesey, Selby.
Officers from North Yorkshire Police attended immediately. The suspects made off from the area in this Honda CR-V, and in the process drove through a red light. Officers followed them, and stopped them in South Milford, where they were both arrested, and their dog and car seized.
In court, Thomas McDonald, a convicted drug dealer, and John Alan Langan, who has racked up numerous similar offences, both pleaded guilty to hunting a wild mammal with dogs. McDonald also admitted an offence of failing to comply with a road traffic sign.
McDonald was fined a total of £239 for the hunting offence, as well as £100 and three points for going through the red light. Langan was fined £239 for the hunting offence, a forfeiture order was placed on the dog, and he was disqualified for five years from owning, keeping or being in control of dog.
John Langan’s previous convictions:
In February 2018 John Langan was convicted of hare coursing alongside Tommy Jaffray from Thorntree in east Middlesbrough, a member of an organised crime gang currently serving a 13-year prison sentence for drug dealing.
In September 2017 Langan and Jaffray were spotted hare coursing by Lincolnshire Police
The court heard that Langan had previously been made subject to an antisocial behaviour order (ASBO) for similar offences.
In March 2010, he was arrested in Bridlington and charged with hunting a wild mammal with dogs.
He was found to be involved in a high number of other incidents of poaching and hare coursing between 2005 and 2010.
The ASBO lasted for three years, but he was again caught in the cruel act and fined at Lincoln Magistrates’ Court .
Two lurcher dogs, called Lucky and Spencer (pictured above), were seized and later rehomed.
Both Langan and Jaffray were fined £120 and ordered to pay £300 costs and £30 charges.
Both received driving bans and were given criminal behaviour orders (CBO).
Chief superintendent Mark Housley of Lincolnshire Police 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.
“People living in urban areas wouldn’t believe how bad this is – it’s soul destroying for farmers and their families, many of who I know have struggled to sleep at night because of threats made by hare coursers.
“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.”
A bit of work the Scum need.
They wouldn’t have the energy to go out Lamping, or what ever else they get up to Hunting Poor Little Animals.
They wont have no luck for what they have done.