Swansea: Owner's punch killed French bulldog puppy

Hugo the puppy was a French bulldog like the one seen above

A man killed his puppy by punching it in the ribs, a court has heard.

Joshua Rowles, 26, lost his temper with the French bulldog pup after it bit him on the lip, whilst they were "nuzzling" at his home on the morning of 29 April.

A post mortem examination concluded that the dog must have been hit with "considerable force".

Rowles has been banned from keeping any animal for the next five years, and was sentenced to four months in prison, suspended for 12 months.

Swansea Crown Court heard on Friday that Rowles woke to find Hugo, the French bulldog, on his bed.

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Rowles and the dog began to "nuzzle", before the pup bit Rowles and he responded by punching the dog.

The dog's condition started to deteriorate over the following 10 minutes, and was seen to start panting.

Rowles rang his ex partner who told him to take the animal to the PDSA vets, but when he got to the clinic the puppy was dead.

The vet advised Rowles to contact RSPCA, and the charity collected the body of the puppy and began an investigation.

Rowles was invited to attend a voluntary interview where he said he had woken up to find Hugo on his chest, and while he and the dog were "nuzzling", the puppy had bitten him, and he gave him "a clip".

Jon Tarrant, prosecuting, said evidence including the result of a post mortem concluded there had a been a punch to the head and a punch to the ribs of the puppy, and the defendant "must have used considerable force".

Rowles, of Matthew Street, in Dyfatty, Swansea, had previously pleased guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to an animal when he appeared in the dock for sentencing.

French bulldogs are one of the world's most popular small-dog breeds

John Allchurch, defending Rowles, said he and his then partner had owned a French bulldog that had a litter of five puppies, and that after the couple split Rowles had kept one - Hugo.

He said Rowles had Hugo for five months before the incident, and that he had cooperated with the RSPCA interview, telling them that after Hugo bit him he carried the pup to its bed, threw his pet down, before punching it to the side of its body.

He added that Rowles had also been candid with the author of his pre-sentence report about needing help to address his consumption of alcohol.

Judge Catherine Richards told Rowles he had committed a "brutal offence" against his dog which had resulted in its death.

She said the "easy thing" to do would be to send him to prison to mark society's disapproval of what he had done, but noted the genuine remorse he had expressed in the pre-sentence report and the steps he had already taken to address his issues around anger and alcohol.

She added that the appropriate sentence on the guidelines was six months in custody, with a third discount for his guilty plea.

He was ordered to complete a rehabilitation course and to abide by a 90-day alcohol abstinence monitoring requirement.