A DISTRICT judge today condemned badger baiting as "barbaric and abhorrent" as she jailed four men who laughed as dogs tore the animals to pieces.

District Judge Kristina Harrison said she was sending out a clear signal to anybody involved in such activities that they would be sent to prison.

Scarborough Magistrates Court heard how a group of six men and a teenage boy dug out and killed two badgers from a sett on farmland at Howsham, near York, in January last year.

Sobia Ahmed, prosecuting, said dogs played "tug-of-war" with one of the badgers before it was shot in the head and slung into undergrowth, while a pregnant badger was torn to pieces and bled to death.

Alan Alexander, 32, from York, Richard Simpson, 37, from York, Paul Tindall, 31, from York and William Anderson, 26, from Pickering, North Yorkshire, were jailed for 16 weeks at Scarborough Magistrates Court after being found guilty of wilfully killing a badger, hunting a mammal with dogs, digging for badgers and interfering with a badger sett.

Alexander and Simpson were also convicted of causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal.

Another two men, Christopher Holmes, 28, and Malcolm Warner, 28, both from York, were handed 12-week custodial sentences suspended for 12 months after they pleaded guilty to wilfully killing a badger, digging for badgers and interfering with a badger sett.

A 17-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was given a youth rehabilitation order after he was also found guilty of wilfully killing a badger, hunting a mammal with dogs, digging for badgers and interfering with a badger sett.

Sentencing the men and the teenager, Ms Harrison said: "Badger baiting is regarded as a barbaric sport and the public feeling is one of revulsion."

She continued: "The people of Yorkshire will not tolerate badger baiting in their midst. It's barbaric, it's abhorrent and anyone convicted of this kind of offence will receive a custodial sentence.

"This is a clear signal to anybody who seeks to commit this kind of behaviour."