A gamekeeper faces the prospect of being the first in Scotland to be sent to prison for a series of wildlife crime offences.
George Aitken put live pigeons in cages and also laced the carcasses of pheasants with deadly poisons in a way likely to cause injury to birds of prey.
Wildlife crime officers were shocked at what they discovered when they staged a raid on the Borders estate where the 56-year-old worked close to the Southern Upland Way public footpath which is popular with dog walkers.
In a joint operation last August involving the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and Lothian and Borders Police a number of banned pesticides and traps were recovered from Blythe Farm near Lauder.
Aitken was described by officers as showing no remorse for his blatant disregard of the Wildlife and Countryside Act.
The first-offender pleaded guilty to a total of eight offences at Selkirk Sheriff Court yesterday while not guilty pleas were accepted to another seven charges.
He admitted three charges of being in possession of carbofuran and sodium cyanide.
Aitken also pleaded guilty to two offences of setting in place pheasant carcasses laced with carbosulfan in the open, setting traps using live pigeons as bait, cruelly ill-treating pigeons and causing them unnecessary suffering by using them as a decoy to attract birds of prey and possession of a quantity of cage traps.
Sentence was deferred until next month after Sheriff Kevin Drummond said:"Background reports will be necessary due to the number and nature of these offences."
Wildlife crime investigations have described it as one of the worst cases they have come across.
Welfare officers have called for jail sentences to be imposed to get the message across to gamekeepers that poisoning birds of prey was a serious offence.
In December at Jedburgh Sheriff Court, Maurice Gibson, 62, was sentenced to 100 hours community service ñ a direct alternative to prison ñ after admitting lacing the carcass of a rabbit with poison which killed a wild buzzard. He also pleaded guilty to having three dangerous pesticides at Frogden Farm near Kelso.
The organisations involved in the raids were pleased yesterday that Aitken had pleaded guilty to a large number of the charges against him.
Natalie Smart of the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said:"This is a really serious case involving the blatant and illegal misuse of highly toxic poisons.
"We are very pleased that he has pleaded guilty to these offences and also causing a great deal of unnecessary suffering to the pigeons used as bait.
"In these sorts of cases a child or a person could easily have been injured and it is a relief he was caught before any people suffering.
"We are hoping the severity of the crimes is matched by the severity of the sentence."
Ian Thomson, investigation officer for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, commented:"The high number of charges placed before the court reflect just how widespread the persecution of wildlife was. "Hopefully the sentence will reflect the seriousness of the charges."
Dave Dick, one of the RSPB officers who took part in the raid, said:"It is one of the worst cases I have seen in 20 years in investigating.
"We have fought long and hard for prison sentences for these kind of offences.
"I hope the sheriff is looking at the option of a jail sentence."
Aitken used his jacket to cover his face as he left the court building without commenting.
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