On Friday, the District Court in Zambrów (Podlaskie) sentenced a man to a three-month suspended prison sentence for shaving a wide strip of hair on his dog’s back and painting there an inscription offensive to the President of Russia. The judgment was issued without a hearing and is not final.
Motion for conviction without a hearing filed by the prosecutor’s office. The accused pleaded guilty. As he explained, he did not want to harm the animal, but only to demonstrate his opposition to it war in Ukraine.
The investigation into this case lasted from the end of May, and the application for punishment was submitted to the court a month ago.
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The dog was noticed by a group of young people near one of the shops in Zambrów. The medium-sized crossbreed had his fur shaved with an electric razor, in a wide strip from head to tail. An obscene inscription directed at the Russian president was written on his skin Vladimir Putin.
He had an inscription on his back insulting the president of Russiazambrow.org
The police and the vet were notified. The owner of the animal, who was under the influence of alcohol at the time, was arrested. The prosecutor’s office assessed that shaving the dog’s hair and painting the inscription constituted animal abuse. Such a charge – arising from the Animal Protection Act – is punishable by up to three years in prison, and a compulsory penalty is also required, as well as an application to take back the dog if the person abusing it is its owner.
Three months suspended prison
On Friday, the Zambrów court considered the prosecutor’s request for a conviction without a hearing.
As Jan Leszczewski, the president of the District Court in Łomża, informed PAP, the person accused of abusing a dog was sentenced to three months in prison, suspended for two years. The court also decided to take the animal back from its previous owner (formally, it is a forfeiture to the State Treasury, pending a court decision, the dog is currently with another person). He also imposed a 3-year ban on owning animals and ordered the convict to pay PLN 1,000. PLN compensation for the Łomża Animal Welfare Society.
The case was described by the portal in May zambrow.org.
Main photo source: zambrow.org