A respected farm manager and gamekeeper who snared and shot dead four badgers has been fined £3500 by a sheriff. It was claimed that Anthony Rogers, 59, of Breconside Farm, Moffat, had humanely shot the animals after they had injured themselves on being accidentally trapped in the snares on the farm.

A respected farm manager and gamekeeper who snared and shot dead four badgers has been fined £3500 by a sheriff.

It was claimed that Anthony Rogers, 59, of Breconside Farm, Moffat, had humanely shot the animals after they had injured themselves on being accidentally trapped in the snares on the farm.

But Sheriff Kenneth Ross, at Dumfries, told him yesterday that as an experienced man of the land he had shown wilful blindness to the consequences of setting the snares near a badger sett.

Rogers, who was said to have spent a lifetime on the land, admitted two charges contrary to the Wildlife and Countryside Act and one of breaching the Protection of Badgers Act between January and April last year.

He admitted trapping four badgers in metal snares resulting in them sustaining injuries attempting to break free and then killing them by shooting them in the head.

He also pled guilty to setting in position a quantity of snares in such a way as to be likely to cause bodily harm to any wild animals and on one occasion setting in position a snare and failing to inspect it at least once every day at intervals of no more than 24 hours.

Depute procurator fiscal Pamela Rhodes said originally it had been thought the badgers had been beaten to death but a closer inspection showed that they had in fact been shot and the impact had shattered the skulls of the animals.

The deaths were uncovered after SSPCA officials visited the farm after receiving an anonymous tip-off that snares were being used to catch foxes.

She said the operation was legal but the snares should have been set above a certain height so that other mammals would not be caught.

Solicitor David McKie stressed that Rogers had been careless or even reckless in the setting of the snares but there was no deliberate attempt to kill the badgers.

In fact he pointed out that since Rogers had taken up work at the farm the number of badger setts had increased from one to seven.

When he found badgers had been trapped he released some but decided to "dispatch" those injured by humanely shooting them.

"He did what he thought was the best thing to do," said Mr McKie.