Man, 27, sentenced for animal welfare offences including cockfighting

HE PLEADED GUILTY TO A NUMBER OF CHARGES

- By SOFIE JACKSON

AN East Yorkshire man has been given a suspended 12-week prison sentence and a 15-year ban on keeping animals after admitting a number of offences including involvement in cockfighting.

Oliver Thomas Bates, 27, of Church Drive, Leven, pleaded guilty to five animal welfare offences. He also admitted charges of animal mutilation, illegal trapping and other offences concerning a hare, a deer, and an Irish pyle cock bird.

He was given a 12-week prison sentence, suspended for a period of 18 months, when he appeared at Hull & Holderness Magistrates Court on December 23. He was banned from keeping all animals for 15 years.

The court heard how in October 2024, RSPCA officers, working alongside police and an expert from World Horse Welfare, visited a smallholding in Tickton, near Beverley, to carry out welfare checks in response to concerns about animals at the premises.