Ackland

Ackland is a supporting antagonist in Martin Rosen's 1982 animated film The Plague Dogs, which is based on the 1977 novel by Richard Adams. He is a bounty hunter hired by Dr. Boycott to take down Rowf and Snitter.

He was voiced by Geoffrey Matthews.

Role
Ackland is a bounty hunter who usually likes to hunt other animals for trophies. After Snitter accidentally kills a wealthy farmer, Dr. Boycott phones Ackland and offers him a job to hunt down the two dogs. Ackland gets his rifle ready and heads out after Rowf and Snitter.

After the police try to catch Snitter, Rowf and the Tod rescue him before they could capture him. After the incident, Ackland finds the dogs' original hideout, but only finds their tracks.

While the dogs and the Tod are trying to escape from the hunters and to the sea, Ackland tracks them down past the rock circle. He is then seen walking past the small pond the dogs were at the other day.

On a snowy day, Rowf and Snitter begin to starve and Ackland is hot on their trail. Ackland finds the two dogs and goes up a steep hillside to shoot them, unaware that the Tod is stalking him. As he takes aim, the Tod jumps him and he only succeeds in shooting off Rowf's collar. Ackland falls to his death and his corpse is scavenged by the starving dogs. His half-eaten corpse was later found by the authorities and the hunt for the dogs is brought to a national level.

Trivia

 * In the book, Ackland never existed. Instead, the hunter who fell off the cliff was a bank clerk named Geoffrey Westcott, who only wanted to hunt the dogs down for raiding his groceries.
 * Despite being hired by Boycott, he is never seen interacting with him onscreen.