A NORTH Wales pensioner was fined yesterday for setting an illegal trap which snared a neighbour’s kitten.
William Lloyd, 75, of Bron Haul, Trelawnyd, near Holywell, told Flintshire magistrates he had never seen the gin trap before.
He denied a charge of setting the trap and causing unnecessary suffering to the neighbour’s cat, Titch, following the incident in his garden in January.
But the retired tractor salesman was convicted yesterday evening by magistrates sitting at Mold.
Lloyd, who told the court he was an animal lover, was fined pounds 100 for setting the trap, and given a two year conditional discharge for causing suffering to the cat.
He escaped a ban on owning animals after he told magistrates he had a dog, a cat and four rabbits which roamed free in his garden.
He was ordered to pay pounds 400 prosecution costs.
Chairman Tony Hughes said the evidence presented to them, although circumstantial, led them to be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt the pensioner had set the trap.
“We do not find him to be credible witness,” he added.
Magistrates ordered the destruction of the trap.
Lloyd claimed it would not make sense for him to have set the trap, found under his garden shed, because he had a cat.
And one of his rabbits would never go into the shed with the others and always went underneath it at night, he added.
But Mr Hughes said that when interviewed by the RSPCA, Lloyd did not mention that he allowed his cat and black rabbit out at night, and had given conflicting evidence.
Bob Vickery, prosecuting for the RSPCA, said neighbour Julie Jones-Qureci found Titch trapped by her right paw in the trap, which had been hammered into the ground under the Lloyd’s shed.
It was clear the cat, which had recovered, had suffered, he said.
Mr Vickery said the trap was not an approved device, and it was illegal to set one. Another trap, although not illegal, was found on the premises as well.
Mr Vickery said he accepted there was no direct evidence Lloyd was responsible.
But he suggested it was not believable that someone else would have gone into the back garden and set the trap under the shed.
Lloyd said he loved animals and had kept animals for 30 years. He would have up to 10 rabbits at a time running free in his garden.
There were incidents in previous years when someone had poisoned his rabbits, and he had lost rabbits to cats.
Lloyd said he came from a farming background but never used such a trap.
“I have never used one in my life,” he said. “I have never seen that trap before.”
The second trap was used to catch birds to prevent them pecking at the bin bags, he said.
The prosecution could not say who had set the trap and the RSPCA Inspector, Fred Armstrong, conceded in cross-examination it could have been some else.
“There is no direct evidence to say that he set it. There is no finger print or forensic evidence,” he said
Source: Daily Post