A Vancouver man has pleaded guilty to fatally injuring and leaving Captain the German Shepard in a Kitsilano Dumpster last summer.
Brian Whitlock, 26, entered his guilty plea on Tuesday and will be sentenced this June, nearly a year after the dog was found.
“This is, in our minds, a win,” said Marcie Moriarty of the SPCA. “We’re relieved … because it saves the emotional and financial toll of a trial — and of course, when you go to a trial, there’s no certainty.”
“This was a particularly heinous crime that touched so many people’s hearts and the response was really quite incredible.”
Captain was discovered July 18, 2012 in a Dumpster near Maple and Cornwall streets. The dog was wrapped in a bloody sheet and had suffered extensive hemorrhaging, swelling, puncture wounds, multiple cuts and profuse diarrhea.
The dog died the next day of cardiac arrest.
According to court documents, police then searched Whitlock’s apartment on July 20 and found a “Swiss army knife …, a large link chain and a baseball bat … and there were also multiple piles of dog feces.”
Captain’s death enraged local dog owners who then held vigils in honour of the pup and protests outside Vancouver court houses when Whitlock was scheduled to appear.
Moriarty said a case this severe is rare but said it still highlights the fact that animal cruelty can — and does — happen anywhere.
“Many people walk around with blinders on, saying, ‘It doesn’t happen here’ but it does,” she said, noting it’s important people report situations where they suspect animal cruelty or neglect is taking place. “We were contacted because two citizens heard something and didn’t walk by and ignore it.”
Whitlock now faces a possible sentence of up to five years in jail, a $75,000 fine, and a lifetime ban on owning or having custody of animals.
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