NEIGHBOURS left ‘sickened’ by a man who threw his German Shepherd into a pool and hit him with a pipe are ‘appalled’ that he has not been banned from keeping animals.
David Meteer, 68, of West Ghyll Place to Charity Lane, High Harrington, Workington, admitted causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal when he appeared at Workington Magistrates’ Court in November.
The court heard that Meteer had picked up the German Shepherd dog called Brody, and thrown him into a swimming pool. He also strangled the dog and hit him with a blue pipe.
John Goodwin, defending, said Meteer had kept dogs for many years and had “lost it” following a fight between two German Shepherds which he owns.
Neighbours had captured the horrific abuse on their phones and the video footage was handed over to police.
But District Judge John Temperley drew back from imposing a ban on keeping animals when passing sentence at Carlisle Magistrates’ Court last week, after hearing numerous references which ‘spoke highly’ of Meteer, as well as the steps taken by a dog behaviour expert and with regards to anger management.
Neighbour Deborah Tuer, who witnessed the abuse along with her husband and children, said the sentence was a ‘grave injustice’.
She recalled how her daughter was “visibly upset” when she came downstairs to tell her that she had seen their neighbour strangling his dog.
Mrs Tuer’s children began recording the incident on their phones and were ‘traumatised’ and ‘upset’ by what they saw.
Mrs Tuer said: “It was horrible to listen to. I was upset they were witnessing this but it was necessary to put a final stop to it. We were appalled by his behaviour. It was absolutely sickening.
“I thought my children were very brave. Once I saw him with the hard plastic, I ran inside and said to my husband, ‘he’s hitting it with a plastic pipe now’. We were tearful. It was awful.
“My daughter was crying. My son was stressed. I kept reassuring them that they were doing the right thing to secure a conviction for the dogs’ welfare.”
Mrs Tuer’s husband phoned the police and officers arrived. Meteer’s seven dogs were seized and he was arrested.
Meteer has now been reunited with five of the seven dogs, after he was handed a 12-month community order with an electronic tag and was ordered to pay a total of £6,000 in compensation.
Mrs Tuer said: “There’s been a grave injustice… It’s been very disturbing and upsetting. My children were quite traumatised for quite a while afterwards.”
READ MORE: Workington man threw German Shepherd into pool and hit him with pipe
