WARNING: DISTRESSING IMAGES - Eastwood man jailed for battering his girlfriend's dog

AN EASTWOOD man who attacked his girlfriend's dog so badly it had to be put down has been jailed and banned from keeping animals for life.

Reece West (22), of St John’s Road, killed his then-girlfriend’s two-year-old chihuahua, Mac, after he was left alone with him in her flat last April.

He was jailed for 26 weeks at Sheffield Magistrates’ Court today (Friday) after being found guilty of causing unnecessary suffering to an animal at a previous hearing.

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Mac suffered a fractured skull and a bleed on his brain while in West’s care, which experts concluded had been caused by blunt force trauma.

Speaking after the hearing, RSPCA inspector Paula Clemence said: “This was a very upsetting case to deal with. 

“The owner of Mac is devastated — as you’d imagine. 

“She left for work, and everything was fine, then she got a text from her boyfriend at the time — West — saying something was wrong with Mac and she needed to come back.

“She went straight home and found Mac collapsed, bleeding from his eye and ear and turning blue. 

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“She rushed him to a vet where he was placed on oxygen and examined and found to have severe head trauma.”

Mac was put to sleep on humane grounds, said the inspector.

Vet evidence stated that Mac had a large swelling around his left eye, bruising to his ear and across his body including his chest, toes and legs, and had a number of scratches and small abrasions.

A post-mortem examination confirmed that Mac had suffered a fractured skull and haemorrhaging to his head and neck consistent with large magnitude blunt force trauma to the area. 

West told inspectors that he had assumed Mac had gone downstairs while he was lying in bed and he had woken up some time later to find the dog on the bed crying and collapsed.

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Both vets who gave evidence during the trial said it was impossible for Mac to have sustained the injuries himself, and that a fall from a small height, like a bed or sofa or even down the stairs, wouldn’t have resulted in head injuries so severe.

The court heard that West had mentioned to Mac’s owner that he had given him a ‘right whack’ two days before the incident, and she noted that Mac had been avoiding him in the home. 

Insp Clemence added: “This incident caused a great deal of suffering to Mac, and his death, as well as an enormous amount of upset to his owner whose grief over what happened goes on.”

West was also ordered to pay £750 costs and a £115 victim surcharge.

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