Dog abuser imprisoned for four months

FOUR months in prison without remission was handed by the Greek Cypriot Supreme Court on Tuesday to Panayiotis Panayiotou, a former hotel employee who had been found guilty of the abuse of Billy, the dog that died after being beaten and thrown into a cardboard crusher in 2014.

The head of the Animal Party, Kyriacos Kyriacou said the four-month prison sentence was satisfactory considering that it is harsher than the strictest penalty imposed by the court until now, on a person found guilty of animal abuse in 2015.

That previous sentence for animal abuse of a man who caused the death of his dog in 2013 (a Rottweiler named Bruno) after tying him to the back of his car and dragging him through the streets, was for only two months.

“This decision of the Supreme Court sets a precedent,” Mr Kyriacou said. “It sends out the message that animal welfare issues ought to be respected.”

Imposing harsher penalties, he said, will act as a deterrent.

Panayiotou, along with a colleague from Bulgaria and the hotel manager were initially put on trial but were all acquitted by the South Famagusta district court in 2015 due to lack of evidence and witnesses. Billy was reportedly chased by the two Protaras hotel employees because he was on the hotel’s grounds, beaten and thrown alive into a cardboard crusher.

He was rescued by people who heard his cries, but died a few days later.

A necropsy showed the cause of death was brain haemorrhage from severe trauma to the base of Billy’s skull.

The Animal Party, refusing to accept the court ruling, had asked Attorney-General Costas Clerides to look into the case in a memo citing a number of questions and uncertainties. Mr Clerides filed an appeal a few days later.

President of the supreme court Myron Nikolatos last November chaired the appeal hearing. Panayiotou was found guilty last week of animal abuse and negligence. He was the only one to be sentenced as the Bulgarian defendant left the country.

Tsokkos Hotels, the company that manages the hotel, had said the manager did not instruct the two men to treat the stray dog in the way they did, and they took it upon themselves to dump the animal in the crusher, which they claimed was not operational. They were fired after the incident while the manager was suspended.