Martin Carter, aged 32 and from Mercers Meadow, Coventry was sentenced at Leamington Magistrates Court on Tuesday 4 June, after pleading guilty to handling stolen goods and causing a prohibited procedure to be performed on an animal.
The court appearance came after a police investigation across the West Mercia, Warwickshire and West Midlands police regions recovered a stolen dog, taken during a burglary at Birmingham Dogs Home in November 2017.
The XL Bully breed, known as ‘Marley’ had been re-homed to the home by the courts after his previous owner was convicted of using the dog in an attack on a woman earlier that year.
Staff at Birmingham Dogs Home never gave up the search for Marley, and after several appeals, police recovered ‘Marley’ from an address in Keresley, Coventry.
Martin Carter had arranged for Marley’s ears to be surgically cropped off in an attempt to conceal the dog’s identity and even had his microchip surgically removed and replaced with another.
Carter received a six-month custodial sentence for handling stolen goods and three months (concurrently) for the animal offence.
An application by the prosecution for Carter to be disqualified from owning animals again was not granted.
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