Fwd: ACTIVISTS LOSE BADGER TRAPS APPEAL

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elp4321

Mon, 4 Dec 2006 6:24 PM

ACTIVISTS LOSE BADGER TRAPS APPEAL

 

 

ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS LOSE BADGER TRAPS APPEAL

Date : 12/01/06

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From- http://www.thisisdevon.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=143632 & command=displayContent & sourceNode=142719 & contentPK=16086587 & folderPk=91672 & pNodeId=201752

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Two animal rights activists who destroyed badger traps in protest against what they said was an "unlawful" Government scheme were rightly convicted of causing criminal damage, London's High Court ruled yesterday.

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Fiona Cresswell, of Hazel Avenue, Braunton, North Devon, and Donald Currie, of no fixed abode, were found guilty at Plymouth Magistrates Court in December 2004.

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A subsequent appeal to the Plymouth Crown Court was also turned down in June 2005.

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The pair had taken bolt cutters to traps on farmland in Lerryn, near Liskeard, Cornwall, on October 16 2003, in an attempt to disrupt a Government study to find possible links between badgers and bovine tuberculosis (TB).

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After the badgers had been tempted into humane traps with peanuts, the >plan was to shoot the animals and then conduct post-mortem examinations to investigate the spread of TB.

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Yesterday, lawyers for Currie and Cresswell told two judges that the convictions should be quashed, as they had a defence under both the Criminal Damage Act 1971 and common law.

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Lord Justice Keene, sitting with Mr Justice Walker, also heard the project fell foul of the Protection of Badgers Act 1992.

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Barrister Piers Marquis, for Currie, argued that, under the Criminal Damage Act, property can be interfered with in order to protect other property. Although he conceded the badgers were wild animals, he said the long and >drawn out process of enticing them into the traps - which took a number of weeks - had made them property.

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Similarly, under common law, Mr Marquis said that property could be damaged in order to prevent a crime being carried out, and he argued that Cresswell and Currie had an "honest belief" that was the case.

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However - although Lord Justice Keene said Cresswell and Currie had a "sincere" and "passionate" belief that badgers were not the cause of TB - he dismissed their appeal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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