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Judge hands down longest animal cruelty jail sentence ever in BC

ARMSTRONG (NEWS 1130) – It’s the longest jail sentence ever handed down for animal cruelty in BC.

A 69-year-old breeder from Armstrong has been told he’ll be spending nine months in jail after breaching conditions just days after they were given to him last month. Those conditions were handed to Gary Roberts following a guilty verdict on two counts of cruelty.

Kathy Woodward with the BC SPCA is thrilled with the sentence. “I believe that it sends a clear message that the courts and society will not tolerate animal cruelty.”

She feels the judge’s ruling sends a clear message that animal cruelty will not be tolerated in this province. “It’s being taken seriously now, and this is what can happen. And I think it may serve as a deterrent moving forward.”

Roberts had initially been sentenced to a 20-year ban on owning animals, four months of house arrest and a nine-month conditional sentence.

Sixteen emaciated horses had been seized from his property — three of them were in such bad shape, they had to be put down. The horses that did survive have been rehabilitated and put into new homes. “Some of them were a .5 on the scale of one to nine and three of the horses had to be humanely euthanized because they were in critical distress.”

The SPCA says before this, the longest jail sentence for animal cruelty in BC was six months.

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