Man released rabbit for dog to chase while recording it

BUT JUDGE SPARES 51-YR-OLD ‘HUNTER’ PRISON

A MAN has been given a suspended prison sentence after releasing a white rabbit before letting a dog chase it.

Daniel Gilmore (pictured), 51, then posted a video of the chase on Facebook after he had killed the rabbit.

He was found guilty of causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal after a trial and was sentenced at Caernarfon Magistrates Court yesterday to a 12-week jail term, suspended for 12 months.

His defence solicitor had insisted rabbits are a pest and can be legally caught.

This one was “effectively wild”, he said. The court heard Gilmore, of Pensyflog, Porthmadog, committed the offence on December 21 last year.

Prosecutor Diane Williams told the court Gilmore released the rabbit from his hand then released a dog and posted a video of the chase on the Facebook page Bedlington Whippets. She said the protected animal was “the kind of animal commonly domesticated in the British Isles and that’s a white rabbit”.

Its white pelt and shape indicated it was a domesticated rabbit and therefore protected. It was not an albino.

But Michael Strain, defending, said it was an “unusual set of circumstances”.

His client Gilmore, a selfemployed scrap merchant who “comes from travelling stock”, has never been in trouble in 50 years.

He said rabbits destroy hedgerows and cause other problems and can be caught legally. Farmers pay people to dispose of rabbits and keep them under control, he added.

Sometimes people put ferrets into warrens and place nets around other escape holes. Dogs can also be used and some rabbits escape.

Mr Strain said the white rabbit in this case “may have been domesticated at one time” but escaped and was “effectively wild”.

He took it from the dog and twisted its neck which was legal, he argued.

Mr Strain added: “Mr Gilmore has not caused it unnecessary suffering. He has just done the wrong thing because the rabbit is white.

“He has not gone out to be cruel. He has not caused the rabbit any additional suffering he would normally cause a brown rabbit.”

A probation officer, who interviewed the defendant, said he was upset and remorseful. They said: “Having been a hunter all his life he is disappointed with himself for the situation he is in.”

The magistrates gave Gilmore the suspended sentence and ordered him to pay £740 court costs and a £128 surcharge.