Man Jailed For Setting His Dog On Cat

William Tucker and his dog in the lead up to horrific attack on the pet cat

According to Mirror UK, a cruel dog owner, William Tucker, 50, has been jailed after he set his dog on a defenceless cat in front of two horrified schoolboys.

The dog plunged its teeth into the body of the cat and threw it up in the air, the Newcastle Chronicle reported.

Two young boys watched the five minute attack take place at 8pm on May 20 as the cat “screamed and cried like a baby” until it died in the road.

Tucker’s friend then used his walking stick to push its body over a fence before the children ran to a nearby community centre to raise the alarm.

The defendant, from Gateshead, pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to an animal and causing an animal fight at the town’s magistrates’ court, and was sentenced to 18 weeks in prison. The other man has never been found.

Judith Curry, prosecuting on behalf of the RSPCA, showed magistrates CCTV and images of the incident.

She said: “The young witnesses described how the men approached and shouted ‘where is the cat’, so they pointed to the car.

“The two men went over and the man with the stick bent down and used it while the defendant went round to the other side of the car and took the dog off its lead. He held it by the collar and waited.

“The cat came out from underneath the car and the defendant let go of the dog’s collar. The dog grabbed the cat by the chest as the men cheered it on and shouted, ‘go on get him’.

“The dog was throwing its head about with the cat in its mouth and the incident went on for five minutes.” The court heard a vet’s examination found the cat suffered fractured ribs and collapsed lungs among the injuries sustained in the attack.

Mrs Curry added: “It was concluded that the cat was killed as a result of a violent attack. It did not seem to behave in any antagonistic, aggressive or provocative manner.”

Charles Weidner, mitigating, said his client, who was joined in the dock by a psychiatric nurse, had been diagnosed with a mental illness days before the attack and had not yet been given the correct medication.

He added: “We are talking about a 50-year-old with no previous convictions who is not somebody who ordinarily comes before the court and there is nothing to suggest that his behaviour towards animals has been unacceptable before this incident.”

However, after an hour of deliberations, magistrates decided the offence was too serious to avoid immediate custody.