Man who set his dog on cat is jailed

Amos Price is also banned for life from keeping animals

A man who set his dog on a cat which was then mauled to death, has been jailed for 18 weeks.

Amos Price was caught on CCTV as he encouraged his lurcher hound to savage the pet last month.

Gary Truefitt discovered the footage after his cat Cleo failed to come home on 24 October.

The 60-year-old examined his home’s CCTV and saw his pet of eight years being mauled to death outside his home in Walsall, in the West Midlands.

Eventually he found its remains dumped in a wheelie bin outside his property.

Police launched a manhunt for Price and he was jailed for 18 weeks at Walsall Magistrates’ Court after he admitted to causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal.

He was also banned from owning animals for life and ordered to pay a £122 victim surcharge and £250 in compensation to Mr Truefitt.

Jailing him, chair of the bench Brian Benton said: “This court is restricted to a maximum sentence of 26 weeks. However, due to your early guilty plea you are entitled to a reduction of one third. The sentence this court will pass is one of 18 weeks. We are imposing a disqualification on you keeping an animal for life.”

The court heard Mr Truefitt went to bed on 23 October and noticed Cleo was missing the following morning. He went to work, and when he returned, Cleo’s cat food bowl had still not been touched.

He checked the CCTV and saw Cleo sitting on a garden wall at around 10.45pm. Around five minutes later, Price was seen to enter the garden with a large dog.

He can then be seen deliberately encouraging his dog to attack the cat by shining a torch in Cleo’s face, even lifting up the dog to help it carry out the brutal killing, as the cat is pulled from the wall and onto the ground.

After running away, Price then returned to Mr Truefitt’s home to retrieve the dog.

Price was eventually caught when police arrested him at his home on Wednesday. The court heard Price was “cooperative” with officers and told them: “I just want to get this sorted out boss”.

He said he was going to hand himself in on Friday as he “didn’t want to keep looking over his shoulder” and his family had been threatened.

The court heard Price had been jailed last January for criminal damage, threats to damage property and assault.

In a victim impact statement, Mr Truefitt, he said: “I have had sleepless nights because of this. When I am out of the house I don’t want to go home because Cleo isn’t there. I feel a big part of my life is missing.”

Price, dressed in a grey hoodie, remained emotionless in the dock during the hearing and blew a kiss to his partner and family who were in court.

Mandeep Sehmi, defending, said: “He lives at an address with his partner of three and a half years and their child who is 15 weeks old. He is looking at his liberty being taken away, and he also has another child aged 12. He was intoxicated at the time of the offence. If he had been sober he wouldn’t have acted in such a manner.

“He is extremely ashamed and sorry for this offence. His family have received various threats including death threats and threats against both of his children. His family will have to deal with such repercussions alone without support. He is on universal credit and is in receipt of no other income.”

SWNS