Just 12% of animal abusers do jail time on conviction in NI courts

Thousands of reports of animal cruelty received by councils and police have resulted in just 33 people being jailed for their crimes in the last five years, we can reveal.

Since 2018, a total of 378 people have been prosecuted and 274 of them convicted - but only 33 of those convicted of abuse or neglect of animal were jailed.

The shortest time serviced at Maghaberry Prison from 2018 to 2022 was two weeks of a four week sentence, and the most time served was seven months of a 15 month sentence. The conviction rate stands at 72% with an incarceration rate of 12%.

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The news comes from the Department of Justice in response to a series of questions from SDLP MLA Cara Hunter. Ms Hunter asked the Minister for Justice to detail the number of prosecutions in Northern Ireland for animal abuse and the length of sentences handed to convicted perpetrators in the last five years.

And it comes too, as Peter Toland whose dog Luna was battered and buried alive in Derry, comes due for release after 17 weeks in jail. He found guilty of animal cruelty and was sent HMP Maghaberry for nine months on January 8, 2024 after his appeal was withdrawn following sentencing on December 14, 2023. His total sentence amounted to 30% of the maximum available to the court.

The numbers of jailed animal abusers is rising year in year, from five in 2018 and 2019 to seven in 2020 and 2021 and nine in 2022.

The prosecutor in the case had told the court the maximum sentence for causing unnecessary suffering to the dog was 12 months imprisonment and that the maximum sentence for failing to take necessary steps to ensure the animal's welfare was six months for each of the three charges. Toland is due for release on May 8 after serving 17 weeks and two days in jail.

His dog Luna, an American Bull Terrier, was put to sleep to end her suffering after she was discovered buried but still alive despite having suffered catastrophic injuries.

She was lifted out of a hole in the ground at Ballyarnet Park in Derry on March 15, 2023 by a member of the public and taken for emergency vet care. Luna had sustained brain damage, ribs, a collapsed lung, starvation and smashed teeth before she had been buried alive.

Police were alerted to her plight when a member of the public spotted two men leaving woods at Ballyarnett, one of them carrying a spade. An eyewitness reported seeing her being put into a hole in the ground where he found her covered with rocks and stones in the Ballyarnett area of Co Derry.

Luna was still alive when the eyewitness lifted her out of the hole, she was extremely emaciated and injured and was unresponsive but still breathing.

Vets estimated that she was about three years old, had previously had puppies, had been starved and was bloodied and suffering from a severe brain injury, fractured ribs, broken teeth and a punctured lung, all believed to have been the result of blunt force impact. Her ears were full of mud and she was cold to the touch.

The vet said with no chance of recovery, the kindest course of action was to put Luna to sleep and a member of an animal welfare charity, Pet FBI, held the dog in their arms in her final moments on March 15, 2023.

Toland had advertised on Facebook, 10 of Luna's puppies for sale in October 2022. Five months later she was dead.

A source said: “The vet team moved as quickly as possible to ease her suffering, but this dog died having been in agony and terror. The final moments of her life were spent in starvation, then fear and pain as she was beaten and buried alive. The people who did this walk the streets of this country.”

The PSNI conducted checks of the location where the dog was found, checked CCTV in the area, spoke with residents and conducted house-to-house enquiries.

And Toland, who had bought the dog less than two years earlier, was arrested on March 17 and appeared in court on Saturday March 18 in connection with the incident.

Three other dogs, whippet-types left “without bedding or water and living amongst a large amount of faecal matter”, were removed from an address and taken to safety as part of the investigation.

He was convicted in October 2023 of one charge of animal cruelty and of three other charges of failing to take reasonable steps to ensure the welfare of three other dogs.

During the sentencing hearing District Judge Ted Magill described Luna's condition as “utterly sickening”. He told the court that Luna had suffered abuse and neglect over a prolonged period of time and said that while there was no evidence that Toland had partially buried the dog, Toland had ownership of and responsibility for Luna during the time when her health was deteriorating and when she was partially buried.

Toland has been banned for life from keeping animals.

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