Tougher Sentences for Animal Abuse

Meet Shaun Furgusson. Say hello to Peter Dibden. Introducing Lee Howard, Leighton Martin Collins and Wesley Lloyd Bryan

All of them have something in common. They’re animal abusers of the cruellest kind. They also share another common bond. They’re all out and about mixing in society with you and I.

Furgusson: 6 months prison time. His crime. Abducted his neighbour, Tracy Bainbridge’s dog Chrissie, and subjected her to a shocking tirade of violence including…

Throwing her at a television
Beating her with an assortment of improvised weapons
Cutting off part of her ear.
Breaking 5 of her ribs
Causing her severe brain damage
Puncturing her lung
Shatteringher teeth

Dibden: Executed his own pet dog, Max with a Samurai sword. No jail but a £900 fine.

Lee Howard: Abandoned his three dogs, leaving them to die a slow and torturous death of starvation and dehydration. He got a 6 month prison sentence.

Leighton Martin Collins: Admitted to punching his pet Yorkshire Terrier in the face so many times that it had to be put to sleep after the dog, one of the world’s smallest breeds of dog, had “shown him up”, as Collins put it.Collins had been drinking and admitted to having had 5 pints of beer prior to the incident. He was drinking at the public house where his partner is the landlady, and felt that the dog was “showing him up” in front of the other customers. He was sentenced to pay vet costs of £1,012.89 but did not receive a prison term.

Wesley Lloyd Bryan, found guilty of neglect after two puppies in his care were discovered with horrendous injuries caused by being burned with scalding water and left for dead whilst Bryan and others ignored their anguished cries.

Bryan, who went on the run, was ‘punished’ for his crimes. He’s been given a 10-year ban from keeping animals. What, you thought he’d be getting a more severe punishment? After all, he only boiled a couple of puppies alive, broke one of their legs, ignored their cries of pain for four days and then went on the run from the Police.

Jon Allen of Trowbridge pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to Border Collie Shandy by hanging him. He was given a 23 week sentence suspended for 18 months, 300 hours unpaid work, £100 costs and a £80 victim surcharge. He was also given a 10 year disqualification from owning animals.

You don’t think a 10-year ban on keeping animals is enough? We (K9 Magazine) have said it once and we’ll say it again –

IT’S TIME FOR ANIMAL ABUSERS TO GET REAL PUNISHMENTS TO FIT THEIR SICKENING CRIMES.How, in anyone’s mind can it be right that a person capable of killing his own pet with a Samurai sword should not get jail time? How can someone who abducts a dog, tortures it and then pretends to help the poor animal’s worry-stricken owner search for the missing pet get the same time as someone who failed to pay a fine? People who perpetrate sick, violent attacks against animals are continually let off lightly despite the overwhelming public consensus that animals deserve better protection from abusers.

Britain needs to change its stance in the cruellest cases of animal abuse. We all take a collective gasp when hearing of these shocking crimes in our newspapers and we assume justice will be served through the courts. The facts are that real justice will never be served until the courts are given the authority to hand down sentences severe enough to fit the level and nature of the crime.

K9 Magazine is a non-campaigning publication. We don’t preach to people how to look after their pets. We don’ pass judgement on pet politics, tail docking, hunting, electric collars or the like. We print the news, the facts and not our opinion. Today we make an exception. Today we ask our readers and any right minded people to help us put pressure on the Government to make changes to enable courts to hand down tougher sentences to animal abusers. Please help us.