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Cleo the cat: Walsall man jailed for fatal dog attack | Cleo the cat: Walsall man jailed for fatal dog attack |
(32 minutes later) | |
A man caught on CCTV encouraging his dog to maul a neighbour'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 Crescent. | |
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". | 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 defence said he was "extremely ashamed and sorry" and that his family had received death threats after the footage was shared on social media. | |
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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