Pit bull owner starved dogs

2007-10-02 21:29

Cape Town - A Cape Town man, who kept eight pit bulls for use in dog fights, was on Tuesday fined R10 000 by a local magistrate.

Half the fine was suspended for five years and the remaining R5 000 has to be paid to the Society for the Prevention of Animals within 30 days.

Wayne Browers, 22, appeared in the Cape Town Magistrate's Court before magistrate Alta Fredericks.

Pleaded guilty to six charges

He was also banned from owning animals, or being in any manner in control of them, for a period of 15 years.

He also has to do 1 000 hours of community service at the Grassy Park SPCA on the Cape Flats.

Browers's trial took the form of plea-bargain proceedings in which he pleaded guilty to six charges of cruelty to animals and one of keeping more than two dogs without written permission from the municipal authorities.

Browers barely spoke above a whisper as he responded to questions from the magistrate who repeatedly urged him to "speak up".

The charges to which he pleaded guilty included admissions that he had the ears of two pit bull puppies and two pit bull dogs cropped without the supervision of a veterinary surgeon; that he confined eight pit bulls in a small courtyard at his Woodstock home without adequate space, ventilation, light or protection from the elements; and that he starved, or underfed the eight dogs, two cats and a cockatiel.

SPCA cared for the animals

Defence attorney Enrico Philander told the court Browers had been evicted from the Woodstock premises and now lived with his father in Claremont.

He said the dogs, cats and cockatiel were presently in the care of the SPCA.

SPCA chief inspector, Andries Venter, was present during the hearing, which was filmed for a TV documentary.

- SAPA