John Culatto
A LOCAL man will go to prison for eight months after a court found he had badly treated his dog.
Dyson Lima, 27, of Prince Edwards Road, was found guilty of Cruelty to Animals by Magistrate Charles Pitto.
An animal welfare officer first raised the alarm after Lima brought his dead German Shepherd into the veterinary clinic in ‘an extreme state of neglect’, according to the RGP.
The corpse was in a such a bad state that the Royal Gibraltar Police later arrested Lima for the offence of Cruelty to Animals.
In Lima’s trial, the court heard how it was ‘the worst case of neglect and cruelty that the veterinary clinic had seen in 32 years’.
Expert witnesses said the dog, that was called Rooke, had gone through ‘extreme suffering before it died’.
They put this down to the neglect and bad treatment of its owner.
One of the expert witnesses said that the state of the corpse reminded him of ‘images seen from concentration camps in the World War’.
“He (Lima) watched as his dog suffered,” said Stipendiary Magistrate Charles Pitto.
“He blamed others, but it was up to him to allow this to happen.
“This is one of the worst cases of this type of neglect this court has seen.”
In his defence, Lima claimed Rooke’s health had got worse suddenly over the last weekend.
“This was an appalling case of mistreatment and cruelty,” said a spokesman for the RGP
“We will always take action against anyone who neglects an animal in their care.”
