In a historic move for animal welfare, a man was sentenced to 10 days in prison and fined LL20,000 ($13.30) Monday after being found guilty of animal abuse, according to animal welfare organization Beirut for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. The trial, which took two years and was presided over by Metn Criminal Judge Mansour al-Kaii, set a precedent that animal welfare organizations have been yearning for: the conviction of those found abusing all animals.
“Abuse is abuse,” Sevine Fakhoury, a BETA board member and spokesperson, told The Daily Star. “We are relieved that justice has finally prevailed.” The man, identified as G.S., also needs to pay BETA LL4 million ($2,642) as compensation, since it filed the lawsuit and cared for the only surviving dog found, a female German shepherd the organization named Alexia.
BETA was notified of a man catching and abusing dogs in Sin al-Fil in the summer of 2016.
Witnesses reported he would either tie the dogs to the back of his car and drag them across the street or tie them up on the streets and run them over. Camera surveillance in the area and video footage taken by volunteers and published on BETA’s Facebook page corroborate the witnesses' statements. However, neither the witnesses nor BETA knows how many dogs were abused and killed.
In addition to Alexia, BETA is aware of three other dogs, two of which passed away, and the third of which is missing. Video footage shows G.S. taking Alexia and throwing her in a parking lot, beating her until she managed to escape.
“Alexia couldn’t stand on her own two legs, not because they were broken, but because she was so traumatized,” Fakhoury said. In his sentencing, the judge found G.S. guilty of tying dogs to his car and dragging them along “in a vicious manner until they lost their lives.”
Kaii based his punishment on an old animal welfare law since the incident took place in 2016, a year before a new animal welfare law was passed in August 2017. Under the new law, anyone found guilty of crimes against animals will have to pay up to LL50 million in addition to serving time in prison, from three months to two years.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
