Teenagers fined for killing deer

Squeaky was killed because the boys thought she was wild

Two teenage boys who killed a pregnant red deer on Dartmoor have each been given 10-month referral orders and told to pay £250 in compensation.

The youths, aged 17 and 16, had pleaded guilty to an animal cruelty offence for butchering the pet deer with an axe and a machete while on a "hunting trip".

The pair, from Cambridge and Coventry, hacked off the animal's head and legs before cooking and eating the carcass.

Newton Abbot Youth Court heard it was a "survival adventure that went wrong".

You did not have the right to commit slaughter Keith Thompson, Magistrate

David Burgess, prosecuting, said the teenagers, who cannot be named, went to stay on a farm owned by relatives of the 16-year-old, in April.

The court heard they set out on their hunting trip with an axe and a machete to make a shelter and kill rabbits and wild birds for food.

In Scorriton Down Deer Park, near Buckfastleigh, the teenagers were approached by a tame, hand-reared nine-year-old red deer called Squeaky.

After deciding to use it for food, the 17-year-old hit the animal with the axe, and it fell to the ground and died.

'Country way of life'

Relatives of the 16-year-old learnt about the killing when the boys returned two days later and contacted police and the deer's owner, Hugh Bourne.

Mr Bourne said Squeaky was worth about £200 and her unborn calf about £50, but the animal had also been a "family friend".

Janice Eagles, defending the 17-year-old, said the pair had embarked on a "survival adventure that went very wrong".

Both youths had spent six months in the Army cadets and had a taste for outdoor challenges, but neither knew the "country way of life", the court heard.

Passing sentence, presiding magistrate Keith Thompson said: "You did not have the right to commit slaughter in the fashion you did, even if it was your belief that the animal was wild."

The teenagers, who have no previous convictions, were also ordered to pay £43 costs each.