Image copyright West Midlands Police A man caught on CCTV encouraging his dog to maul a neighbor’s cat to death has been Jailed for 18 weeks.
Footage of Amos Price setting his dog on eight-year-old Cleo on 23 October was shared widely online after it was released in a bid to identify him.
Price, 30, from Trevor Road, Pelsall, West Midlands, admitted causing unnecessary suffering to an animal.
He was also banned from keeping animals for life when he appeared at Walsall Magistrates’ Court.
The crime was discovered when Cleo’s owner , Gary Truefitt, checked his home’s CCTV footage after he became suspicious that his pet had not come back inside.
It showed Price opening the garden gate and releasing his dog, which savaged Cleo outside her home in Woodlands Crescen t.
In a statement, Mr Truefitt said: “I feel as if there is a big part of my life missing.
“I don’t want to go home because I know Cleo is not there.”
He previously described Cleo as “a daft cat in lots of ways” but a companion who “will be very much missed”.
West Midlands Police said it was a “horrifying act of cruelty on an innocent animal “.
Price, an unemployed father of two with recent convictions for criminal damage and assault, claimed he was drunk at the time .
His defense said he was “extremely ashamed and sorry” and that his family had received death threats after the footage was shared
Magistrates said Price’s guilty plea meant the maximum sentence they could impose was 18 weeks, but added: “We would if we were actually permitted to do so have imposed a far greater custodial sentence. “
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