CONVICTED (2018) | Richard Thomas Hansford, born c. 1951, of Mount Skippet Way, Dorchester DT2 8TP – caused suffering to chickens and pigs he kept on a smallholding
Hansford pleaded guilty to four offences under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 and the Welfare of Farmed Animals (England) Regulations 2007.
The offences related to four chickens kept on a small patch of land at Lewell near Dorchester.
In February 2017, Dorset County Council’s trading standards service received a complaint about Hansford’s chickens and visited the land he kept them on just outside Dorchester.
They found the chickens in a large, muddy pen with no coop or place that the chickens could be protected from predators or the weather.
At the time of the visit the weather was bitterly cold which meant that any water left out for them was frozen.
The available water was not clean as all the containers had green algae growing in them.
The court heard that Hansford had received numerous visits and advice on how to care for his animals over a ten-year period but had continued to ignore this.
In January 2017 Hansford had signed a formal caution for almost identical charges relating to pigs he also kept on the land.
In mitigation, Hansford stated that he had been a gamekeeper for 19 years and had done his best to look after his animals.
He told the court he had suffered from depression for several years.
Sentencing him, the chair of the Magistrates said that Mr Hansford had caused distress to the animals for a significant period and that this was compounded by not adhering to the advice given to him by Trading Standards.
Sentencing:
Ordered to pay £530. Banned from keeping poultry and pigs for 10 years