Bloodsport link to sheep attacks

EXCLUSIVE: Police tie animal deaths to hare coursing

Criminal gangs sweeping into Perth and Kinross in the dead of night to indulge in bloodsports are believed to be behind a spate of attacks on livestock.

Farmers have lost tens of thousands of pounds of prized sheep to out-of-control dogs in recent months, with dog walkers bearing the brunt of the blame.

It has emerged the illegal practice of hare coursing may be behind the savage maulings. Police received “intelligence” suggesting dogs are being deliberately set loose in fields by criminals, with the devastation wrought on farmers a by-product of that barbaric crime.

The barbaric practice of hare coursing could be to blame for a sickening increase in sheep worrying incidents across Perth and Kinross.

Prize livestock has been savaged with increasing regularity in recent months, with seven maulings now reported since November. Two have now been linked to hare coursing.

In each incident whippet-type dogs have been spotted loose in fields and the police believe they may have been deliberately set free.

Though there has been a lull in hare coursing in recent months, Tayside has previously been a hotspot for the crime.

During 2013-14, almost half of all Scotland’s recorded incidents of hunting with dogs were in Tayside.

Groups have been reported travelling from all over the country to the area’s farmland to send greyhounds, whippets and lurchers hunting for a kill.

Bets are often taken and any hares caught are torn apart before those responsible disappear as swiftly as they arrived. The whole practice often lasts no more than 10 minutes.

Farms near Alyth, Auchterarder, Blairgowrie, Crieff, Dunkeld, Balado, Muthill and Kinross have all been affected by sheep worrying recently.

Last month one of Scotland’s top breeders, farmer Tom Paterson from near Muthill, was left reeling after discovering his prizewinning flock of pedigree animals had been targeted.

With many of the animals heavily pregnant, the full impact of the dog attack will not be known until lambing time, although Mr Paterson estimated the loss at thousands of pounds.

Inspector Kevin Chase said: “I would not be surprised if there had been even more incidents we don’t yet know about.

“On two recent occasions in the Kinross area the animal involved has been a whippet and it may well be that hare coursing was taking place.

“It might be that another form of wildlife crime has led to sheep worrying.

“There has been information provided to our officers suggesting that hare coursing is once again on the increase.” Night-time visits and the fleeting nature of hare coursing mean it can be very difficult to detect and prosecute but two recent Tayside court cases have proved it can be done.

Convictions were handed down to three people from Aberdeen after they were found to have visited Angus to hunt hares near Kirriemuir.

Witnesses were able to provide Police Scotland with detailed descriptions of the men, their dogs and their vehicle.

All were subsequently arrested and their dogs’ DNA taken and successfully used to link them to a dead hare by forensics experts at Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture.

Mobile phones and a video camera were also seized and found to contain footage of the men posing with dead hares.

One man was jailed and banned from keeping a dog for a year.

Supervision and fines were handed down to the others, one of whom was aged just 16 at the time of the offence.

In a second case, a Dundee dog owner was jailed for four months after being convicted of hare coursing.

Bets are often taken and any hares caught are torn apart.