Men sentenced for serious offences against animals in Dorset
Date of alert:
Monday, 22 January 2024
Crime Ref:
Force:
Dorset Police
Two men have been jailed for animal cruelty offences following an investigation by officers from Dorset Police’s Rural Crime Team, with support from colleagues in Hampshire.
Kristen Cooper, aged 24, and of Bransgore in Hampshire, was sentenced at Southampton Crown Court on Friday 19 January 2024 after admitting seven offences of causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal following an investigation by Dorset Police. He was also sentenced for further offences in Hampshire.
The charges followed a warrant executed at the defendant’s address on Monday 3 October 2022.
Officers seized the defendant’s phone, and on it they found several videos showing the defendants causing unnecessary suffering to animals, mainly in rural areas at night.
They showed Cooper causing suffering to injured deer and hares and, in some cases, encouraging dogs to attack them. There were also videos showing wildlife with injuries, suggesting they had been mutilated. The videos were reviewed by an expert as part of the prosecution process, who described them as some of the worst cases of animal abuse he had seen in 24 years.
