December 12, 2007

ENGLAND – A breeder from outside Brighton, England, was sentenced to four years in prison today in the March hanging death of a Staffordshire Terrier.

The dog had been a gift to a local teen whose mother wouldn't allow the boy to keep the dog at home. So it stayed at the home of Anthony Woodhouse, a 49-year-old breeder of Staffordshire, or Pit bull, terriers.

According to Woodhouse, he called the boy over to his home when the 6-month-old dog became aggressive, pinning him against a wall and barking.

The boy arrived soon after to find Woodhouse holding one end of a retractable leash. The other end was tied to the dog, stretched over a door. Woodhouse then pulled the leash, thus hanging the dog by its neck. After a few minutes, the dog died.

The boy, whose name cannot be released for legal reasons, said he could hear the dog's nails clawing at the door as it tried to escape.

He said his dog wasn't overly aggressive, as Woodhouse had claimed.

After the incident, the boy buried the dog in a friend's garden. It was later exhumed by RSPCA officials who, after a necropsy (autopsy of an animal) determined the dog died from asphyxiation.

Woodhouse's crimes include animal cruelty and committing a crime in plain view of a minor – for which he will serve four months in prison.

He is banned from owning another animal, and a few small pets found in his home were rescued and given new homes.

In his defense, Woodhouse claims he didn't think strangling the dog would be pailful.

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