Page 8 - Hillside 2015 20th Anniversary Newsletter

2000 Illegal Slaughter...

The Tamworth Five... We weren’t prepared for the
horrific scenes of animal carnage
We immediately offered to help that we faced when we found Mark
when we heard that nine cattle Gathercole’s illegal slaughterhouse.
had escaped from a Staffordshire Blood smeared knives, choppers
farm and had been roaming the and an electric saw lay next to
woods near Tamworth for severed sheeps’ limbs and heads
several months. and pits full of blood.

Despite our offer, four of the Above, the Tamworth Five finally arrive at Hillside... After gaining sufficient video
animals were callously shot, evidence, Hillside alerted the
strengthening our resolve to help RSPCA who, with the Police,
the remaining cows. raided the premises. During the
court case it was described how
Soon regional TV and radio heard of our attempts to save the cows and following their involvement, and the Gathercole slaughtered the sheep
help of two caring local people who spent considerable time winning the cows confidence, we were able to in full view of each other, some
bring them back to the Hillside to spend the rest of their days together in the safety of the Sanctuary. being so close they were
splattered in blood before being
Freedom Food... despatched themselves.

When a farm that was brought to our attention, turned out to be We were relieved that our
RSPCA Freedom Food accredited, we were so confident the hens evidence resulted in a successful
would be in good condition, we almost didn’t bother going in. It’s prosecution of Gathercole, who
a good job we did! Our investigators found hens so badly feather- pleaded guilty to 20 charges of
pecked, some had only 15% of their feathers left. We also found cruelty and causing unnecessary
dead and decaying hens left to rot for at least two weeks. harm. He was sentenced to three
Unfortunately this was the first of very many Freedom Food farms months in prison and banned from
we have found over the years with similar, appalling conditions. keeping goats and sheep for life.

Since 2000, we have exposed
THREE further cases of this
barbaric and, sadly,
commonplace trade in
animal suffering where the
perpetrators were found
guilty and sent to prison.

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