A COVENTRY man who cut a dog’s ears off after he stole it from an animal charity has been jailed.
Martin Carter, aged 32 and from Mercers Meadow, Coventry, took the dog, Marley, from Birmingham Dogs Home in November 2017.
Carter had Marley’s ears surgically cropped off in an attempt to conceal the dog’s identity and even had his microchip removed and replaced with another.
He was sentenced at Leamington Magistrates Court on Tuesday, June 4, after pleading guilty to handling stolen goods and causing a prohibited procedure to be performed on an animal.
The XL Bully breed dog had been sent to the home by the courts after his previous owner was convicted of using the dog in an attack on a woman earlier that year.
Staff at Birmingham Dogs Home never gave up the search for Marley and after a number of appeals, police recovered him from an address in Keresley, Coventry.
Carter received a six-month custodial sentence for handling stolen goods and three months (concurrently) for the animal offence. An application by the prosecution for Carter to be disqualified from owning animals again was not granted.
A West Mercia Police spokesperson said: “We are committed to preventing any unnecessary cruelty and suffering being caused to animals and will seek to prosecute anyone involved in such practices to the full extent of the law, asking for owners to be disqualified from keeping animals in future wherever possible.”
Birmingham Dogs Home tweeted: “We are so pleased to say that Marley has been found safe and is now in a secure location until he can find a new loving home.
“Thank you to everyone who shared his post and also to the police for prosecuting the person responsible.”
