A MAN who bought a dog when drunk and then kicked it in the face and laughed has been banned from keeping animals.
Paul Ioan Evans, 31, pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to an animal before Wrexham Magistrates.
The unnamed sandy-coloured lurcher had only just been sold to Evans when he dragged it on a drunken walk and beat and abused it.
Michael Cunnah, prosecuting for the RSPCA, said Evans, of Druids House, Plas Madoc, and a friend were seen by witnesses around
Bro Gwilym, Cefn Mawr, drinking and laughing with the dog.
“He was carrying the dog in one hand and drinking with the other. The dog didn’t seem to want to go with him,” a witness said.
One witness knew Evans, nick-named ‘Muscles’, from her school days. She said she saw him “boot the dog with full force in the face so that it lifted off the ground”.
She approached him and told him “You’re out of order, what are you doing that for?”
The incident was reported to the RSPCA and an officer visited a property in Cross Keys Place, Cefn Mawr, where the dog had been taken.
Both Evans and his friend were drunk, the officer said, as she asked to see the dog.
“The dog appeared to be nervous and trembling. There were blood stains on its chest and its lip appeared to be swollen,” she said.
The officer asked if the dog had seen a vet and Evans said he had only just got it that day from a friend of a friend, but agreed to sign it over to the RSPCA.
An examination by a vet found the dog had a fractured tooth, a swollen lip, and could not move its tail, probably because of neurological damage from a blow to the face.
There was also evidence of a traumatic blow to the liver, a heavy blow upwards into the groin and a lesion on one paw consistent with being dragged on a lead.
In interview Evans told officers he had bought the dog when drunk, and had tried to take it for a walk on a lead, but it had resisted. While trying to get the dog to move, he tripped over the lead, which he said may have caused some of the injuries.
However, he admitted he then “kneed the dog in the face” with the full weight of his body, and the dog “started having a fit”.
He said he did not kick it, but said “I was trying to stamp on it to calm it down – not stamp on it, but put my foot on it.”
When asked how he thought the dog felt to be kicked he said: “What are you asking me for? Kick me, and I’ll tell you.”
He said the owner should not have sold the dog to him when he was drunk.
Justine McVitie, defending, said Evans had pleaded guilty.
“He has a long-standing battle with alcohol,” she said. “He remembers very little about the incident but does accept that he did what he did. He finds it difficult to look after himself, let alone anyone else,” she said.
She said he was extremely remorseful and embarrassed and could understand the court being horrified.
Magistrates disqualified Evans from keeping animals for five years. He was ordered to pay £120 towards vet’s costs.
He was also given a four-month suspended sentence with supervision and ordered to attend an alcohol workshop.