A 37-YEAR-OLD man who organised illegal dog fights using foxes, badgers and deer as opponents has been convicted of abuse under new animal cruelty laws.
Andrew Mullen, of Uddingston, South Lanarkshire, pled guilty at Lanark Sheriff Court to keeping five dogs for the purposes of animal fighting.
He was also found to have 340 photographs on a laptop showing dogs fighting with foxes, badgers, deer and other dogs. The offences took place between January 1, 2009 and March 31, 2010. Mullen is among the first offenders in Scotland to be tried under section 23 of the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act.
Police and animal welfare officers raided his home on March 31, 2010 following a tip-off from the SSPCA. They seized his laptop and five dogs – a terrier-type puppy, three lurchers and a female terrier – found in kennels in the garden.
At least three of the dogs had injuries or scarring from injuries consistent with fox or badger fighting. Mullen, who is unemployed, claimed that he kept the dogs as pets and to show.
He denied actively using his dogs to fight badgers, but accepted that he allowed others to use them and that he knew the dogs he kept were to be used on badgers. Photographs stored on his computer also showed Mullen and other associates digging and causing terriers and lurchers to fight with various animals, including badgers.
Area procurator-fiscal Tom Dysart, who leads on wildlife and environmental crime in Scotland, said: "In pleading guilty, Mullen has accepted his disregard for the well-being of his dogs and of the animals with which they could be forced to fight."
Mullen is due to be sentenced on March 1.
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