Farmer who hanged his dog for not rounding up sheep is jailed

A FARMER who hanged his sheepdog from a tree because he didn’t round up the flock properly has been jailed. Graham Thomas, 55, attached a 20ft rope around the neck of Welsh border collie Prince before hanging him at his farm in Rhymney, south Wales. Three people saw Thomas shouting and swearing at the defenceless dog before the killing. They contacted the RSPCA, which brought a prosecution to court. In a trial at Cwmbran Magistrates’ Court, the farmer said Prince had strangled himself when he darted up a tree with the rope around his neck. But a vet told the court it was highly unlikely the dog could have climbed the tree. The vet said the hanging on August 8 last year would have caused Prince ‘great fear, distress and clear unnecessary suffering’. Thomas, of Tredegar, south Wales, denied an offence under the Animal Welfare Act, but was found guilty after a trial. Yesterday, he was jailed for 18 weeks for causing unnecessary suffering and banned from keeping dogs and sheep for life. He was also ordered to pay £750 prosecution costs. RSPCA inspector Emma Smith said: ‘This is such an unusual and disturbing case where a sheepdog was killed by his owner, allegedly because he wouldn’t round up his sheep properly.’ She added: ‘Prince would have suffered immensely. This deliberate cruelty is just so horrific to fathom. ’ Battersea Dogs and Cats Home chief executive Claire Horton said: ‘Shocking cases like this show how important it is to increase sentences for the most serious cases of animal cruelty. ‘Had this man been convicted of fly tipping, he could have been jailed for up to five years. Instead, he has escaped with just a few months in prison.’

‘Deliberate cruelty’