Man drowned his own dog after attack
A St David’s man was locked up after admitting drowning his own pit bull because it killed a neighbour’s dog.Nasir Brangman, 24, pleaded guilty to cruelly killing the animal in an incident on November 5.Magistrates’ Court heard that at around 11.30am that day the animal warden attended a reported dog attack on Lighthouse Hill, St David’s in which a pit bull had killed a Pomeranian.During the investigation the warden spoke with Brangman who said he owned Bruno, the pit bull involved in the incident, and that he had drowned the animal following the attack.The Great Bay Lane resident later went with investigating officers to Clearwater Beach, where the animal’s body was recovered. A necropsy confirmed that the dog had been drowned.Appearing in court yesterday, Brangman said he had witnessed the attack and “lost his composure,” adding that he had voluntarily paid the Pomeranian’s owner $2,500 in restitution.Brangman said he now understands that what he did was neither right nor lawful.Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner described the defendant’s actions as the ultimate mistreatment of an animal, saying: “Just because it got out of hand doesn’t mean you can callously take it out and drown it.“If you had a child that misbehaved, would you take it out and drown it? You are talking about going out and drowning a dog because you don’t like its behaviour.”Mr Warner added: “There is something wrong with you, man.”The Magistrate ordered a social inquiry report on Brangman, remanding him into custody until he can be sentenced in late February.After Brangman was taken from the court, his mother stood up and asked the court for leniency saying he could lose his job at the Tyne’s Bay Waste-to-Energy facility.She said her son loved the animal and only killed it because he knew it would be destroyed for the attack on the Pomeranian.“He did that because he was with Bruno for a long time and he felt he would do it himself rather than have someone else take the dog and put it down,” she said.She also told the court her son has no criminal history and has acted as a role model for young people, speaking at a recent CedarBridge graduation.Mr Warner responded that he could not see how Brangman could be seen as a role model acting in such a way, and that laws have been put in place so that if an animal has to be put down, it is done so in a humane manner.“This is the other end of the spectrum,” he said. “He could have called the people at Environmental Services and said he couldn’t handle the dog any more and surrendered it.”He added that he was surprised that legislation treats the killing of a dog as lightly as it does, noting that kicking a dog and killing it is the same offence in law.However, the Magistrate also told the mother that Brangman was free to challenge his decision in the Supreme Court.SPCA Shelter chairman Andrew Madeiros said he was horrified by Bruno’s drowning, saying there are numerous options for those who have an animal they feel they cannot keep or that needs to be euthanised.“There are a lot of options, and he took the worst possible one,” Dr Madeiros said. “I don’t understand how anyone would think that is a suitable thing to do. To me, there’s no logic.“I understand that there may have been a reason he made the decision to put the animal down. That’s fine, and that’s a reasonable decision to make if you cannot control the animal or if it’s aggressive, but what is reasonable to me is taking the animal to the vet.“We live in a civilised society, and our animals deserve better than that. People need to understand that there are plenty of options.”He implored anyone who may find themselves in a similar situation to contact a veterinarian or the SPCA to discuss their options.