[Steve]

Dog Who Suffered 'Depraved, Despicable Act' Finally Gets Justice.

A man who said he was dropping off a dog at an animal shelter, but instead bound him with electrical tape and left him to die, will spend the next two years in a federal prison.

An Ontario court heard Michael Hill of Windsor, Ontario, took $60 from a couple to deliver the dog to a local shelter. The 13-pound dog's original owners, according to testimony, were unable to keep him due to their newborn daughter's allergies.

The dog, since named Justice, was found with his legs and muzzle brutally bound in a field behind a Canadian Tire store.



"I saw the little head poke up. That's when I saw the little dog," the man who stumbled across the dog said last December.

Veterinarians said he likely wouldn't have survived a couple of hours more.

"There is no other way to describe this act; it's a despicable act of depravity," assistant prosecutor Craig Houle told the court on Monday.



In addition to a the prison sentence, Hill was given three years probation and a 25-year ban from owning or living with animals.

While Ontario's animal cruelty laws are touted as the strongest in Canada, it's still an unusually stern sentence.

In a similar case from 2012, John Mackenzie of Belle River, Ontario, was convicted of animal cruelty after taping a dog's muzzle shut and tying him to a tree — with fatal results. His sentence? Despite Mackenzie's "wanton and callous" act, a judge sentenced him to just four months in jail.

Even that sentence is certainly a welcome progression from past cases across Canada.

In 1989, for example, an Alberta man who beat his dog to death with a hockey stick was fined $1,000, despite a judge stating his "actions went far, far beyond what could be considered reasonable discipline for an animal."

In 1996, a man angry about his cat knocking over a garbage pail broke the animal's leg. He was acquitted of animal cruelty as a Newfoundland court deemed the act accidental.

Michael Hill's case, on the other hand, may have been influenced by a surging social media campaign that arose after the story was originally published.

An online petition demanding justice for Hill's victim drew more than 60,000 signatures. Some of that virtual rage spilled over into real life on Monday, with dozens of animal welfare advocates showing up in court and pelting Hill with insults.



Denied bail last month, the 32-year-old has spent his days since mid-December in solitary confinement — a measure taken, his lawyers say, because the other inmates posed a threat to his safety.

"Michael confessed right from the very beginning," his lawyer Ahmad Ammar told reporters outside the courthouse. "It's something he wanted to get behind him. He recognized that he did something that he shouldn't have done."

And Justice, the 7-year-old dog who very nearly died an anonymous death in a stretch of field?
"The wounds to his muzzle are healing well, and they're definitely not holding him back from claiming every stuffed toy he can find for his own," the Windsor/Essex County Humane Society wrote in a Facebook post.



For now, Justice remains in the humane society's care while he continues to recover.

Eventually, he will be looking for a real home.

If you would like to help the Windsor/Essex County Humane Society in its mission to support hundreds of dogs in need like Justice, consider making a donation.

You can also help toughen up animal abuse laws in Canada by supporting the Animal Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

In the U.S., the Animal Legal Defense Fund fights that good fight every day. Make a donation here.

How the hell you can live with yourself after doing that to such an adorable little animal is incomprehensible to me. Some say it's just a dog so what, well I say fuck you too.

[BigFoot]

Poor puppy.

Glad someone found him and cared for him. Makes you wonder how many times a day this happens across the world to these poor animals.

[Nasty Nuggets]

If you can't keep the dog, why the fuck bound it up so it dies? Why not just let it go? There's some fucked up people in this world.

[BryanXavier]

If I didn't look gay doing it, I'd round house kick the teeth out of the felon.

[Susan]

What a shitty bastard. I knew of a guy who threw a pitbull out on the motorway cos he no longer wanted it, as it kept nipping his chin. I never spoke to the twat after that. He's in prison doing a life sentence for murder and mugging now. They say people who hurt animals go on to kill people don't they.

[facing_reality]

Originally Posted by Nasty Nuggets ↗

If you can't keep the dog, why the fuck bound it up so it dies? Why not just let it go? There's some fucked up people in this world.

That's just it: it wasn't even his dog! All he had to do was take it to the shelter, & got paid $60 for it!

And I like slyksleevemuckyey's example. I think this guy is in the same category: just a sick, sadistic little fuck á la Luke Magnotta or Jeffery Dahmer.

I'm reminded of a Bible verse (though not an exact quote & totally out of context): "[God says] whatsoever you do to the least of these, you do to me."

You have to be soulless to do something like this. It just shows who he really is; prison is definitely the right place for him. What a sick bastard!!!

[Steve]

Originally Posted by slyksleevemuckyey ↗

What a shitty bastard. I knew of a guy who threw a pitbull out on the motorway cos he no longer wanted it, as it kept nipping his chin. I never spoke to the twat after that. He's in prison doing a life sentence for murder and mugging now. They say people who hurt animals go on to kill people don't they.

Pretty much every serial killer started off their careers harming or killing animals, it's kinda like a dry run or a precursor of what's to come.
I won't watch anything that's relates to animal cruelty it sickens me to the stomach.

[spudigitti]

kunt

[Morbid75]

I hate that guy. I hope someone kills him in prison.

[Jerdipski]

I sincerely hope he serves every single day of his sentence! I wish the Australian justice system took same stance.. We have tougher laws in place & jailable offences although the offenders always seem to get off with good behaviour bonds or fines & bans from owning animals..