FOUR people have been convicted of animal cruelty after a huntsman fed four live cubs to hounds.

Secret footage captured by anti-hunt campaigners at the South Herefordshire Hunt (SHH) kennels led to the four, including a Wye Valley terrierman, appearing at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court for sentence on Monday (June 10).

The hunt, which was based at Wormelow and held meetings near Weston-under-Penyard and Monmouth, has been disbanded since senior huntsman Paul Oliver was filmed handling fox cubs in 2016 which he fed to hounds to ‘blood them’, even though live hunting is banned.

Paul Reece, a terrierman, of Itton near Chepstow, took cubs to the kennels after foxes were legally “removed from their earth”, the court was told.

Oliver, 40, was convicted of animal cruelty after a seven-day trial and handed a 16-week jail term suspended for a year for causing the cubs “painful, terrifying” deaths.

Reece admitted causing unnecessary suffering to cubs which were distressed by being transported to the kennels.

He and Julie Elmore from Abergavenny, who admitted the same charges, were given six-month conditional discharges and ordered to pay £50 costs after District Judge Joanna Dickens accepted they didn’t know the cubs would be fed to the hounds.

Reece, 48, and Elmore, 55, claimed they thought they were saving them from being shot, and the cubs would be relocated.

The court heard that a camera filmed Oliver dumping two cubs’ bodies in a wheelie bin.

He and hunt kennel maid partner Hannah Rose both denied animal cruelty, but were found guilty, with Rose receiving a 12-week suspended jail term.

Neither were banned from keeping animals, because they would lose their jobs at a Lincolnshire stud yard.

The duo were also ordered to pay £300 costs and a £115 surcharge.

The Masters of Foxhounds Association suspended the SHH after the footage first emerged.

After the court hearing, a spokesperson for the association said Oliver’s actions were “completely disgraceful” and had no place in hunting.

But Martin Sims of the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) said: “The barbarity of these incidents is sickening and will horrify the vast majority of the British public who are overwhelmingly opposed to fox hunting.

“This case shows that fox hunting is a horrendously cruel and brutal activity which needs to be consigned to the history books.”

Prosecutor Simon Da- vis told the court: “The unnecessary suffering involved the killing of fox cubs, effectively... throwing the fox cubs into the kennels of the fox hounds.”

Judge Dickens said: “This was a very serious offence of its type. The fox cubs suffered a painful, terrifying death.Four fox cubs were kill- ed, they did not have the chance of escape.

“Thankfully, the veterinary evidence shows that they died quickly. I consider that Mr Oliver took the lead role and it’s clear Ms Rose was acting on his direction.”

Explaining her reasons for not banning them from keeping animals, she added: “I think the chance of any reoccurrence is minimal. I also take into account that to disqualify them would cause them to lose their current employment.”

The judge, who said Reece and Elmore had experienced an “unjustified and outrageous” hate campaign on social media, had been “motivated by consideration” by trying to stop the cubs being shot.

But the transportation of the cubs after foxes were “removed from their earth” would have caused them distress.

“They took the cubs to the kennels believing they were rescuing them from being shot,” she added. “They believed they were being relocated. What they did was right at the bottom of the scale for offences of this kind.”

Mark Thompson, for Reece and Elmore, said: “Their criminality is negligible. They had no intention to cause any suffering to any animal. That is just not the people they are.”

A fifth defendant, Nathan Parry, 40, of Abergavenny, was cleared of animal cruelty charges.

Hidden cameras were placed at the kennels by the Hunt Investigation Team (HIT).

They fixed a device to Oliver’s Land Rover following a tip-off and identified sites where foxes were “dug out”.

The court was told a camera recorded Oliver handling foxes and dumping the bodies of two cubs in a wheelie bin. Footage also showed a stick with a noose being used by him.

Clive Rees, for Oliver and Rose, said the pair now looked after a private stud yard.

Oliver suffered from kidney disease, and was “finished” in the field of hunting, he said.

“There has been abuse from both sides of the fence from day one. As a result, the South Herefordshire Hunt no longer exists."