Posted on 09/15/2019 12:13:39 PM PDT by NorseViking
A Florida man who dragged a shark to its death from a high-speed boat has been jailed for 10 days.
Robert Benac III will pay a $2,500 fine, perform 250 hours of service at an animal shelter and lose his fishing licence for three years after pleading guilty to misdemeanour of animal cruelty.
Benac accepted the plea deal just as he was about to go on trial on Thursday for a more severe felony charge of aggravated cruelty to animals, according to The Bradenton Herald.
A second man, Michael Wenzel, accepted a similar plea deal over the incident in February and he was also required to serve 10 days in jail over five weekends.
It is understood charges were dropped against a third man, Spencer Heintz, who was also arrested.
The case came to light when the video of the men dragging the shark behind a boat in July 2017 went viral.
The men can be heard laughing in the footage which was posted on social media.
Robert Benac has been jailed for 10 days. (Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office) Robert Benac has been jailed for 10 days. (Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office) Look, its already almost dead, one of the men says in the video as he points towards the shark.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission launched an investigation into the video.
Read more
Following the incident, other videos emerged showing the men shooting a shark and pouring alcohol down the throats of live fish.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
Yeah, all this outrage over a damn shark. It got nothing more than a brain stem. Do these people go after fishermen landing fish at the shore?
Son of a county commissioner of Hillsborough County, i.e. Tampa.
I'd be in favor of lessening the sentence to dragging Benac III behind a boat for an hour or two.
Pleasant-looking fellow though.
Punishment should be solely identifying the people publicly, and a fine. This is a total waste of governments time and money.
Wait until the vegans get more power.
Punishment should be solely identifying the people publicly, and a fine. This is a total waste of governments time and money.
I firmly agree!
True.
Instead in jail time this cretin should have to spend considerable time cleaning boat ramps.
Maybe every weekend for a year.
I wish our government was as zealous in protecting natural rights of humans.
It is a shark. Whatever the fine is for killing a shark unlawfully is what he should get punished with. Otherwise he did not do anything wrong. This arbitrary punishment rooted in outrage is how Nazis and commies behave.
Fraternities do this as initiation all the time. And yes some have died from it.
And this goes against God's admonition to us in Genesis to care for His creation - use it, don't abuse it.
Amen, apparently there are people here who don’t understand your first sentence.
I saw a shark that had been partially disemboweled turn around and gobble up it’s own entrails.
I would not invite these cretins to my home.
Hey billyboy15......what should the punishment be for a MOTHER and a DOCTOR who KILL a BABY??? Please answer....although I think you won’t!
So if I drag a shark to death I would get jail time but if I bludgeon him to death I get dinner.
... the sharks is similar to most birds and mammals and can experience pain and fear in stress situations like cutting its oxygen supply down by dragging it tail first and, obviously, shooting it.
Please allow me to be there the next time scientists stress a shark by cutting off its oxygen supply. I would get no wanton thrill from it but would love the chance to ask them if they feel that they deserve 10 days in jail, a $2500.00 fine and months of indentured servitude for their experiment.
Have the game warden write the guys a ticket and let them pay the fifty dollars. All I'm saying is we need some common sense and sanity here.
“Hey billyboy15......what should the punishment be for a MOTHER and a DOCTOR who KILL a BABY??? Please answer....although I think you won”
Sure I’ll answer, hell even morons need a response if only to show them they are a moron.
No matter how strongly I feel about abortion it is nonetheless the law of the land at this time and as such there IS NO PUNISHMENT available for Dr or mother. They will be judged by God and their punishment will be far worse than anything we can dole out and it will be for eternity.
However there IS a law against TORTURING animals and a crime like this is particularly heinous and deserved to be adjudicated more seriously.
Satisfied? Now go play in traffic.
Agreed. These are sick people. Want to bet this guy is a regular road rage perp? I guarantee he exhibits unhealthy social behavior in other aspects of his life. Like being a bully to wife and kids, for example.
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