Hare coursing pair avoid prison

Hunting with dogs - including hare coursing - is banned in Scotland

Two men caught hare coursing on farmland near Stirling have been spared a prison sentence.

Robert Clements, 44, and David Scott, 40, both from Lanarkshire, were found guilty of using three lurchers to hunt a juvenile hare.

The pair told Stirling Sheriff Court they had been targeting rabbits.

Sheriff Andrew Cubie had considered jailing them, but instead sentenced them to 80 hours of community service each.

Hare coursing is included in the Scottish Parliament's ban on hunting with dogs.

During the trial, a police wildlife officer told how he witnessed the two men with three dogs, one of which was on a slip lead often used to allow quick release while hunting.

When he approached the men he saw one of them toss what he suspected to be a hare down the railway embankment.

We accidentally killed a hare while out rabbiting. It could have happened to anyone David Scott

The officer then found the hare, which he believed had just been killed because it was still warm and its body was soft.

The vet who examined the dead animal said it had suffered crushed bones, torn muscles and round puncture holes in its body - injuries consistent with being caught in the jaws of a dog which was running behind it.

Giving evidence, Clements, from Blantyre, said he knew hare coursing was banned and claimed they had come to Sink Farm, in Cowie, to hunt rabbits because it was a hot spot for them.

He claimed he did not see the hare until the dog had retrieved it, but he knew the implications and so tried to get rid of it.

Scott, from Carluke, said they were in the area because there were "very few" rabbits in Lanarkshire.

The pair did not catch any rabbits at the farm in Cowie, and Sheriff Cubie told them he was satisfied that what they were doing was hare coursing.

Outside court, the men maintained their innocence.

Scott said: "We accidentally killed a hare while out rabbiting. It could have happened to anyone."