Violent terrierman convicted after police find dead otter in his freezer
Darren Fisher's defence was 'an interest in taxidermy'
A notorious hunter received a pitiful sentence on 2 September after he was found guilty under the Wildlife and Countryside Act. Police raided Darren Fisher's house on 26 February and found a dead otter in his freezer, as well as dead foxes in his garage. According to the BBC, the man is now a gamekeeper.
The news channel reported:
"Fisher's defence barrister said he was given the otter by a young man who worked on a farm, as he was known to have an interest in taxidermy.
'He uses those animals for educational purposes, speaking to youngsters and using the animals to expand their knowledge of wildlife,' he said."
Anyone who knows Fisher's history of violence and animal cruelty will have a hard time believing the barrister - and any parent who learns of Fisher's violent history will want him to stay far away from their children...
Convicted umpteen times
37-year-old Fisher is renowned within hunting circles, having found himself in trouble with the law a number of times in the past. During the 2023/24 hunting season, Fisher was a terrierman for the Middleton Hunt. West Yorkshire Hunt Saboteurs wrote of him in 2023:
"It appears that the Middleton Hunt have welcomed some rather suspect characters into their employ this season, one being Darren Fisher, their new apparent 'terrierman'.
Fisher was jailed early 2017 and was then caught digging out on Rougemont Carr heritage site later that year... Why would a hunt claiming to "be within the law" employ such a violent criminal?"
Indeed, Fisher was imprisoned, along with 15 other people, after he was involved in a mass fight at a boxing match in 2017. A woman was knocked unconscious during the fight which involved up to 50 people. Fisher was terrierman for the Badsworth and Bramham Moor Hunt at the time, and was jailed for 23 months, including 9 months for breaking the conditions of a previous suspended sentence.
Wildlife Guardian outlined Fisher's other crimes prior to this. The anti-hunt website stated:
"On the 13 July 2017, Mr Fisher had been given a suspended prison sentence at Leeds Crown Court for a road rage attack that landed a flurry of punches on an innocent motorist after a minor collision in Castleford.
Mr Fisher’s victim suffered whiplash injuries to his neck, two bloodshot eyes and impaired vision in his right eye for a period of time after the attack. The victim managed to get in his van to escape after the attack. The court heard Fisher has nine previous convictions for assaults."
And then in December 2019, Fisher - who was drunk - drove through a roadblock and tried to escape to Portugal to avoid another trial. He was jailed in 2021 for the incident. At the time, the York Press wrote:
"Darren Leslie Fisher, 34, had driven a car through a road block in the dark and sped for miles down the closed A1(M) towards where firefighters were dealing with a major lorry fire, York Crown Court heard.
When he had to stop, he scaled an eight-foot fence to get away from police."
Most recently, Fisher has been spotted acting as a security guard for the Badsworth and Bramham Moor Hunt. This is unsurprising, given his convictions for thuggery.
For this latest offence, Fisher was found guilty of possessing a wild animal of listed species. He was fined just £111, and was given a 12-month conditional discharge, for keeping the otter in his freezer.
Otters and hunting
Otters are strictly protected from persecution by both the Wildlife and Countryside Act (1981) and the Hunting Act (2004).
They are though still hunted by ‘mink packs’ that allegedly went from hunting otters to hunting mink as otters declined in waterways across England. Even though this non-native species is still protected by the Hunting Act, hunts thrash through riverside vegetation looking for mink on the ridiculous pretext that they ‘are conducting surveys’. They naturally sometimes disturb an otter, and the hounds don’t know the difference of course. As well as illegal hunting, otters face illegal trapping on some estates and fisheries.
Like most convictions for animal cruelty, Fisher's punishment is absolutely paltry, and will likely not deter him from similar acts in the future.
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