Sentencing
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2004:
“For the first time ever, an animal
abuser in New Orleans has been sentenced to
serious jail time,” Louisiana SPCA executive
director Laura Maloney e-mailed to ANIMAL PEOPLE
on November 5, 2004. Convicted of severely
neglecting four chained pit bulls, Dwight Petit,
28, of New Orleans was on November 5 sentenced
to serve 18 months in jail, of which he had
already served six, with an additional 30 months
suspended, plus four years of active probation,
to include drug testing, counseling and
treatment, 100 hours of community service, and
restitution of court costs plus $1,000 to the
Louisiana SPCA for recovery of medical costs. The
Louisiana SPCA adopts out healthy pit bulls of
non-aggressive behavior, but euthanized Petit’s,
as medically beyond likelihood of recovery.
Joyce Hoskins, 47, of Hillsboro,
Oregon, on October 14, 2004 drew three years in
prison for repeatedly allowing a dog named Nigel
to attack her 7-year-old daughter and 8-year-old
son in the name of “discipline.” The son lost
part of an ear in June 2002, and the daughter
was badly mauled in March 2003. Hoskins’ husband
David E. Hoskins, 46, received the same
sentence on September 23. Washington County
Presiding Judge Marco Hernandez took extra time
to sentence Joyce Hoskins in consideration that
she may be mentally impaired, but concluded that
she was “no worse, no better” than her husband,
and exhibited a pattern of concealing the
children’s injuries from schools and hospitals
that showed that she knew right from wrong.
Hernandez terminated the Hoskins’ parental
rights. A seven-year-old pit
bull/Doberman/German shepherd/Labrador mix,
Nigel was euthanized.
Dog show attacks
Bradley Fowler, 9, of Brewster,
Massachusetts, suffered reportedly permanent
injuries to his left hand in an attack by a
200-pound English mastiff named Winston on
October 10 at “Paws in the Park” in South Dennis,
a fundraiser for the Cape Cod chapter of the
Animal Rescue League of Boston. Brought to the
event by Paul Iafrate of Orleans, Winston
previously bit Iafrate’s son and daughter, on
separate occasions, Iafrate admitted to Cape Cod
Times staff writer Marc Parry. Iafrate claimed
the incidents were defensive reactions to being
teased or startled. A similar incident occurred
on September 23 during a dog show at the Dennis
Senior Center, when a Yorkshire terrier
performing dog trained by Evelyn Galloway, 74,
of Orange, California, was killed in a sudden
attack by a Bouvier des Flandres service dog
trained by wheelchair-bound Autumn Daniels of
Dennisport. Both cases are expected to result in
litigation. Formal benched dog shows have
historically been protected from liability for
biting and fighting incidents by enforcing rules
that disqualify dogs for bad behavior, but the
precedents pertaining to events that admit random
public participation are less clear.
Abroad
Taxi driver Joseph Cheung, 49, was on
October 21 convicted of assault for striking Hong
Kong SPCA volunteer Yip Ko-yuen with a leash on
May 14 and setting a dog on him, causing
multiple injuries to his groin, thighs, and
lower legs, after Yip Ko-yuen stoppd the dog
from attacking a feral cat. On the same day,
District Judge Wesley Wong Wing-fai ordered Chong
Wai-kwan to pay the equivalent of $15,416 U.S. to
domestic helper Mujiati (who has no surname) for
injuries suffered in repeated attacks by Chong
Wai-kwan’s Akita. Mujiati is also pursuing a
Labour Tribunal case against Chong Wai-kwan for
allegedly giving her just one day off per month
and underpaying her.
Northampton (U.K.) Crown Court Judge
Patrick Eccles, QC, on October 16 revoked a
death sentence given to Dino, 7, a German
shepherd belonging to a man named Bryan Lamont
who spent more than £60,000 in legal fees to save
him. Dino bit a woman on the hand during a fight
with her terrier at a public park in January
2001. Admitting that he allowed Dino to be out
of control in public, Lamont was fined £100 and
ordered to pay £2,552 to victim Elizabeth Coull.
Apparently not understanding at the time that his
admission condemned Dino, Lamont unsuccessfully
appealed the case to the High Court, the House
of Lords, and the European Court of Justice
before the British Criminal Cases Review
Commission on September 13 referred the verdict
back to the Northampton Crown Court for
reconsideration.
Other cases
The Tehama County board of supervisors on
October 19 unanimously approved a $200,000
settlement with the family of Genoe Novach, 6,
killed in February 2002 by two Rottweiler/pug
mixes who escaped from the yard of neighbor Dean
Schneider, a former Red Bluff police officer.
Convicted of involuntary manslaughter in July
2003, Schneider served four months of a
six-month sentence for involuntary manslaughter,
won early release due to good behavior, and will
be on probation until 2008. The Novach family
alleged that Tehama County animal control
officers knew Schneider’s dogs were dangerous,
but did not act on the knowledge.
Jerry Allen Bradford, 37, of Pensacola,
Florida, was on October 23, 2004 arrested by
the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office on a
September 8 felony cruelty charge. Seeking
treatment for a gunshot wound to the wrist,
Bradford told sheriff’s deputies that one of
seven three-month old German shepherd mix puppies
he was trying to shoot and bury had pulled the
trigger of his .38 revolver. “Nice shootin’,
Rex” headlined Associated Press. Three dead pups
were found with four survivors at the scene. Two
died of parvo virus at the Escambia County Animal
Control shelter, but the pup who shot Brad-ford
and a sister survived and were adopted.
