An Oxford man who savagely beat a 17-week-old puppy to death with a slipper after it pooped indoors has been handed a sentence of less than six months in jail, Unilad reported.
Pixaby | Liz McVoy
Man Beats Puppy To Death With Slipper For Pooping Indoors, Gets Less Than 6 Months
Callum Gerken was alone with the puppy when it defecated inside his home.
Facebook | Callum Gerken
The 27-year-old also said the puppy, whose name was Shadow, tore up his belongings and his furniture. He set out after the untrained dog with a slipper and beat it as punishment.
Shadow wasn't Gerken's dog but was actually that of a woman in her 20s who Gerken called after the beating.
Pixaby | Bruce Murray
He left the woman voicemails saying, "I have just beat [the dog] from one side of the room to the other. I don’t give a [expletive]. That is how it will be with me. She ain’t gonna do that again because she cannot [expletive] walk."
The savage attack left Shadow with a laceration to her liver, a broken jaw and fractured ribs.
Pixaby | Liz McVoy
According to Metro, she showed signs of having difficulty breathing at the time of the incident but Gerken made no attempts to seek medical help.
Police were called to the Oxford residence on April 3, the night of the incident.
Unsplash | Matt Popovich
Gerken was arrested and charged the next day for the murder of the puppy.
He had previously denied charges of causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal and sending malicious communications.
Unsplash | Wesley Tingey
However, he changed his plea to guilty at the last minute on Friday.
He was sentenced to 23 weeks in prison and ordered to pay £250 compensation and £1,000 in court costs.
He is also banned from owning a dog for 10 years.
Magistrates in court told Gerken that he and he alone is the reason that the dog is no longer alive.
Pixaby | Tanisha Hamelin
"The dog died as a result of what was done to her," he was told. "You were determined to cause harm and you made threats that you would cause further harm to the dog."
They added, "You were in a position of responsibility. You used a slipper as a weapon. You did not call or take the dog to the vet or seek advice even though you were aware she was unwell."
An unidentified woman who owned Shadow said she is "devastated" at the loss of the puppy.
Unsplash | Anthony Tran
‘I was there when she was born and I watched her grow up and learn to walk and run," she said. "[Shadow] didn’t know anything else but love."
The dog was also owned by two little girls, aged 6 and 8.
Unsplash | André Spieker
‘They had only had her five weeks and they all absolutely adored her and [Gerken] comes along and beats her to death," the woman said.
She also said she believes the 23-week jail sentence is much too lenient for what Gerken has done.
h/t: Unilad
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