CONVICTED (2021) | master of the Western Hunt John Lanyan Sampson, of Trelew Farm, St Buryan, Penzance TR19 6ED – allowed a pack of hounds to kill an elderly cat while she rested outside her house.
Hunt master John Sampson was found guilty of allowing the fox-hounds to maul 14-year-old Mini to death.
He was ordered to pay £1600 for being in charge of dogs that were dangerously out of control.
Mini the cat was killed outside her home in Madron, Cornwall in March 2021.
The incident was filmed on a mobile phone by a neighbour of the cat’s owner, Carly Jose.
The video footage shows that after a dog dropped the cat, Sampson’s son Edward threw her lifeless body over a fence into a back garden of a neighbour in Trafalgar Fields, Madron, Penzance.
Chris Rendell, prosecuting, told the court Sampson, his son and his son’s girlfriend were on horseback exercising a pack of around 21 dogs in fields close to the estate on the morning of March 6, 2021.
The hounds from the Western Hunt following a scent through gorse and bracken.
Around six dogs broke away from the main pack and entered the cul-de-sac where they chased, caught and killed the cat.
Neighbour Charlie Knight filmed the incident on his mobile phone, while another neighbour, Peter Nicholls, spoke to Edward Sampson, a whipper-in.
Mr Nicholls told the court he heard barking and a meow and went outside to see if it was one of his cats.
Mr Nicholls said he grabbed his walking stick and went outside and saw Edward Sampson.
“He had a whip in his hand, and I saw the cat fall from the nose of the dog, and he was running and he scooped the body of the cat up off the road and flicked it straight over the hedge into my garden,” he said.
“I grabbed the stick just in case I had to beat the hounds off the cat, or they came at me.”
Asked what happened next, Mr Nicholls said: “He whipped the two hounds away and coming past me I said I’d seen what he had done, and he said, ‘I’m sorry, I’ll be back in a minute’.
“He then ran off and spoke to Carly next door, apologised to her and said he was sorry and then ran off towards the kennels being pursued by the bloke filming him.”
Mr Knight said he saw a group of hounds chasing the cat, which tried to jump over a fence to get away, before it was mauled by the pack.
“A man appeared who picked up the cat, looked around, which I perceived to be him looking for witnesses, then threw the black cat over the wooden fence into the back garden,” he said.
“I saw the man fleeing, so decided to follow him to get a clear shot of his face for the video. He said to me he was coming back once he had sorted out the hounds.”
A post-mortem examination confirmed Mini died as a result of being “grabbed and shaken” by at least one dog”. Her injuries included a broken back and broken ribs, but the vet said in a statement that it was likely Mini’s suffering would have been “relatively short”.
Sampson had denied charges of criminal damage and being the owner or person in charge of a dog dangerously out of control in a private or public place.
Sampson was acquitted of criminal damage but found guilty of the second charge.
Outside court, Ms Jose said: “The complete disregard for people’s animals, any animals, is just vile, utterly disturbing”.
She added: “You want an animal to die with dignity, like a person will want to die with dignity. Mini didn’t die with dignity.
“She was scared and thrown after she was killed.”
Following the incident, Ms Jose set up a petition for “Mini’s law”, to make it illegal for hunts to go near residential or public areas.
More than 100,000 signed it meaning the matter will be debated in Parliament.
Martin Sims, director of investigations at the League Against Cruel Sports, said: “This sickening incident illustrates the havoc fox hunts are having on local communities and domestic animals and wildlife across the UK.”
Sentencing: fined £480 and ordered to pay £350 compensation to Ms Jose, £775 court costs and a £48 victim surcharge.
Update April 2022
The BBC reported that John Sampson has had his appeal against conviction refused.
At the appeal hearing, Judge Simon Carr rejected Sampson’s application, saying it was a “violent death of a much-loved cat”.
WE Thank The Neighbours Very Much For Coming Forward With The Footage.
Thank You Again.