25th February 2025
Two men have been jailed after forcing their dogs to fight with a badger in an act described by a judge as “sick, depraved and unforgivable”.
Stephen Rose, 39, and Kenneth Wade, 29, drove to farmland near Richmond, with three terriers looking for badger setts, York Crown Court heard.
Prosecutor Lily Wildman said that on January 25, 2023, Richmond Rural Watch reported suspicious activity to police relating to a vehicle parked near Jagger Lane, Melsonby, near the A66.
Members of the group had reported seeing torchlight at about 8.50am.
As a result of the call, police later stopped a silver Volvo V50 estate near Scotch Corner.
“West was in the front passenger seat and Rose was in the driver’s seat,” said Ms Wildman.
Police also found three terriers inside the vehicle including Wade’s dog Coco which was sat in front of the passenger seat. The two other dogs in the back belonged to Rose.
Ms Wildman said it appeared that Wade was “trying to hide (Coco)”.
Officers discovered from a database that Wade had been banned from keeping dogs until 2027 under a court disqualification order.
Both men were arrested and the dogs were taken into police kennels. The vehicle was seized and a search revealed a spade covered in fresh mud in the passenger area.
The terriers belonging to Wade and Rose were examined by an emergency vet who treated Coco for a degloving injury under anaesthetic. One of the other dogs had facial cuts.
“A badger expert said the injuries were most likely caused by fighting with a badger,” said Ms Wildman.
The following day, police found a disturbed badger sett which had recently been dug up, along with two shovels, a dog lead, a knife and a discarded cigarette butt.
Officers also found a dead badger about 15 metres from the sett.
The badger expert later visited the site and confirmed that it had been an active sett with fresh bedding and soil heaps.
The expert said the side tunnels and chamber had been illegally dug into and some of the entrances to the sett had been blocked.
Wade’s dog had extensive jaw injuries and facial cuts to one of the other dogs showed that the badger had died in a fight with the terriers.
The sett had been home to five badgers including a cub which would have been “seriously disturbed” by the intrusion, “especially as it took place in the breeding season”.
“The terriers showed classic bad fighting injuries,” said Ms Wildman.
She said that Wade’s dog was already badly injured from a previous incident and “should not have been working in this condition”.
According to the vet who treated her, the dog “must have been in considerable pain” and to “work” her in that condition was “thoughtless and cruel”.
The vet also noted that the previous wounds had not been stitched.
The badger suffered puncture wounds to the head, fractured limbs and its head had “almost been severed by an implement such as a shovel or spade”.
Blood was later found on Wade’s trousers during a forensic examination. The vet said the blood would have been from a “heavily bleeding badger” and, more specifically, the dead animal found near the sett.
Text messages found on Wade’s phone showed that he and Rose had been messaging each other in the hours leading up to the killing.
One read: “I’m keen mate. There is pigs in there. We’ll get a pig out of one of these setts if you are up for it.”
In either a continuation of the same message or a response to it, one of the defendants then says: “Can’t wait. Hope we get a good dig. Would be nice for pups.”
They each admitted causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal, namely a dog, by placing it in direct conflict with a badger.
Rose also admitted an act of violence which caused serious harm in a separate incident in Sunderland.
That offence, on July 1 last year, left the victim in an induced coma for four days after suffering serious injuries including three broken ribs and a punctured lung, albeit Rose had used “excessive self-defence”.
Rose and Wade, appeared at the Crown Court for sentence on February 17, but the sentencing judge made reporting restrictions to delay any publicity about the case because both men faced a trial at York Magistrates’ Court on separate charges relating to the same badger-baiting incident.
Yesterday, they were each due to be tried for the wilful killing of a badger and interfering with a badger sett by damaging it. However, they each pleaded guilty to the offences on the day their trial was due to take place.
Ms Wildman said that Wade, of Airedale Gardens, Hetton-Le-Hole, Houghton-Le-Spring, had previous convictions for violence and causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal in 2017 when he received a suspended prison sentence.
Rose, of Mardale Street, Hetton-Le-Hole, had previous convictions for serious violence and affray.
Defence barrister Liam O’Brien, for Rose, conceded that his client’s behaviour was “abhorrent”.
He said the married father-of-six was on bail, or under investigation for, the violent offence at the time of the badger killing.
Michael Cahill, for Wade, said: “He knows there is no acceptable reason for this and he knows he will have to pay for it.”
He said that his dog was in a “bad way” and had suffered a “high level of pain”.
Jailing Wade for two years, Judge Sean Morris said it was clear that the Wearside man “got a sadistic thrill” out of harming animals.
“What you did was unforgivable,” added Mr Morris.
“You and your co-accused set out with dogs to set these dogs on a badger. You are to be sentenced for cruelty to these dogs and it’s quite clear that when the police found the dog that belonged to you, it had extensive injuries to its lower jaw.
“It’s quite clear that these dogs would have been (put) through a terrifying process when confronting the badger, to say nothing about the terrifying process for the badger. This was sick and depraved, and you should hang your head in shame.”
The judge said that Wade, who was also a father, had shown a “level of depravity which is unbelievable”, adding: “It is quite clear that this was sadistic behaviour and a deliberate attempt to cause suffering to the dog as well as the badger, and a deliberate disregard for the welfare of the animals.”
He banned Wade from keeping any animals for the rest of his life.
He told Rose he was guilty of a “shocking, sadistic and depraved offence” which amounted to “extreme cruelty” to the animals.
The judge noted that at least one of his dogs was in a “shocking state”.
He said the only mitigation in Rose’s favour was that “unlike your co-accused, you have not engaged in this kind of depravity before”.
Rose was jailed for 23 months for animal cruelty and the assault, and banned from keeping animals for the next 10 years.
At the magistrates’ court yesterday, Rose and Wade were each jailed for a further 23 weeks for killing the badger – an offence under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992. They each received a further 16-week jail sentence for interfering with the badger sett, but this was to run concurrently.
Their co-accused, a father and son from the Sunderland and Seaham areas, denied the same offences and magistrates ultimately dismissed the charges against them, clearing them of any wrongdoing.
The magistrates’ bench said that neither of the wrongly accused men had been seen at the badger sett and were found lying in a hedge 1km away nearly two hours later.
For those reasons, magistrates granted the defence application to dismiss the charges against them after deciding there was no case to answer.
SCUM like this should be hung they are pure evil murdering bastards and should suffer for it like they made the badgers. WE need some much much stronger laws to deal with parasites like this and until we do it will go on and on and on when no one is looking. THIS particular filth should be banned from ever having a dog or any other animal ever again and from keeping away from ANY wild animal or jailed for a very long time. I HOPE THEY ROT IN HELL