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 ...
I knew a fellow who looked like that. He stabbed a young woman over one hundred times. This one is or has done something really bad.
So, you are condoning cruelty toward and killing of every animal that innately attacks humans!
Get real.
Deserves to be repeated. Good post, BTW.
Public shaming should be sufficient for this, unless the shark is on the endangered species list.
Whoa there! Slow down and read a little. I said from the start that wanton emotion shows a lack of character and didn't ever indicate that it should be accepted.
All I have said is that there should be a reasoned response to this sort of thing. A dog or even a rabbit screams in pain if injured. I have never heard a fish scream. Tuna fish are grappled into the boats with giant hooks.
It is ludicrous to prosecute these cretins for fish cruelty when the same thing happens billions of times each day to simply feed humanity. Give them reasonable non-judicial fines, rescind their fishing licenses, publish their names in the newspapers for shame and derision and stop wasting public safety resources with court proceedings.
If they are torturing the animal, yes! There are standards for the humane slaughter of animals and, incidentally, ‘halal’ ain’t one of them.
The character who was convicted,did not do what he did to catch dinner. Neither dragging a shark from a high speed boat until it dies, nor pouring alcohol down a fish’s throat is anything but demented torture.
He was just marinating the fish inside out!
“Give them reasonable non-judicial fines, rescind their fishing licenses, publish their names in the newspapers for shame and derision and stop wasting public safety resources with court proceedings.”
In the article it mentioned they took a “deal.” The laws in Florida for these type of actions are considered a class 3 felony which can bring 10 years in prison and a $10K fine. I’d say they did get off light.
rwood
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