LITTLE GOATS, BIG TROUBLE!
Farmer shoots at neighbour’s pygmy animals in feud over hawthorn hedge
A FARMER shot at his neighbour’s pygmy goats after the two men became embroiled in a bitter row over a boundary, a court heard.
Paul Baxter, 60, fired his air rifle towards the goats after getting fed up with them eating the hawthorn hedge which he believed was his.
The goats ran off in fear but were not hit or injured. Baxter was charged with firing an air weapon beyond his premises and found guilty following a trial at Poole Magistrates’ Court.
The court heard the owner of the goats, Benjamin Young, 38, ran Nursery Bridge Farm near Swanage, Dorset, which backs on to Seekings Farm which is owned by Baxter’s 85-year-old mother.
The two farmers hadn’t spoken in several years due to the row over the ownership of the hedge.
Baxter’s mother had also repeatedly objected to plans by Mr Young to install agricultural buildings on his land to house his animals. And last July, two months before the shooting incident, a large sign was erected on Baxter’s side of the hedge reading ‘Sod Off’.
The court heard that on September 14, Mr Young and his mother Josephine noticed their goats at the boundary fence with Baxter standing ‘menacingly’ holding a gun. ‘He was about 20 metres away from me and my mum,’ Mr Young said. ‘I ran towards him out of panic and wanting to protect my mum. He walked away quite hastily and I shouted that I was calling the police.
‘I ran back to my mum and we both saw him walking past a gap in the hedge where my goats were. At that point I saw him stick his rifle through and shoot. The goats were scared and ran off. I shouted,
“Do not shoot my goats, they are on our side of the fence”.’
Baxter, who did not give evidence in court, was interviewed by police but gave no comment.
Graham Gilbert, defending, denied his client had taken the shot and accused Mr Young, who wept in the witness box, of lying.
Mr Gilbert put to him: ‘You have never recovered the pellet either from your goats or from your property… I put it to you that the reason no pellet has ever been found is because you are not correct in what you say.’ Mr Young said it was a ‘disgraceful’ accusation.
Magistrates found Baxter guilty, although he was cleared of a second charge of harassing Mr Young and his mother. He was fined £170 and ordered to pay £620 in costs as well as a victim surcharge of £32.