Man superglued injured dog for hare coursing match

A man superglued and stapled his dog's face together so he could use it to commit further crimes in Lincolnshire, police said.

Shane Hooton, from Knaresborough, was one of three men to be sentenced at Lincoln Magistrates' Court on Tuesday after pleading guilty to their involvement in a hare coursing match in the county in February last year.

Lincolnshire Police said officers found Hooton's "terrified" female lurcher in the boot of his car after apprehending him and his friends John Langan and Thomas Jaffray near Waddington.

Det Con Aaron Flint, the force's wildlife crime officer, said the injuries to Hooton's dog were so severe it had to be put down.

Flint said officers were "shocked" to open the boot of the men's Vauxhall Vectra and find the black lurcher with a "horrendous degloving injury" to her lower jaw.

"The owner, Shane Hooton, had known of the dog's injuries for six days. He appears to have stitched and glued the injury himself," he said.

"By taking the dog hare coursing, the defendants caused horrendous and completely unnecessary suffering to a dog. They should have sought immediate veterinary care," the officer added.

Police said voice notes found on Hooton's phone also revealed he had tried to superglue and staple the lurcher's face together.

According to the examining vet, the animal had experienced "significant pain" and "unnecessary suffering".

Flint said Hooton and Langan should not have been in Lincolnshire and were in breach of a court order for a previous hare coursing offence.

However, in court the pair's defence claimed that, as members of the travelling community, hare coursing was "ingrained in their culture" and they were unaware it was illegal.

Hooton's defence maintained that his poor literacy skills prevented him from understanding the earlier ban, a position the probation service told the court it did "not wholly accept."

The two other dogs found in the boot of the car - Jude and Juney - have since been rehomed.

Hooton, 33, of Thistle Hill, Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to a dog, trespassing with intent to search for or to pursue hares and breach of a criminal behaviour order.

He was handed a six-month prison sentence suspended for 18 months.

John Langan, 39, of The Hawthorns, Great Ayton, Middlesbrough, pleaded guilty to trespass with intent to search for or to pursue hares with dogs and breach of a criminal behaviour order.

He was sentenced to four months in prison, suspended for 18 months.

Thomas Jaffray, 42, of Eastwood Road, Middlesbrough, pleaded guilty to trespass with intent to search for or to pursue hares with dogs. He was sentenced to an 18-month community order.

All three men received a ten-year ban from keeping dogs, as well as a 15-year criminal behaviour order prohibiting them from entering Lincolnshire during the hare coursing season.

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