Tougher sentence call for UK pet abusers

A petition set up demanding that two brothers receive harsher sentences for filming themselves abusing their dog has attracted hundreds of thousands of signatures.

Andrew Frankish, 22, and his brother Daniel, 19, from Redcar, Teesside, were sentenced to 21 weeks in prison, suspended for two years and a tagged curfew for six months for the horrific beating they inflicted on their pet bulldog, Baby.

They headbutted, jumped on, and threw their pet down the stairs in a series of brutal acts that were filmed on mobile phones.

The harrowing abuse the cruel thugs captured on camera is extremely disturbing and shows the poor animal repeatedly thrown down flights of stairs, “pile driven” into the ground from head height, swung around, and stamped all over.

A number of clips, filmed by the younger brother, show Andrew picking the bulldog up at the top of some wooden stairs before repeatedly throwing her down them. All the while the men can be heard laughing hysterically. The outrage at their paltry punishment on social media is so severe that the online petition on change.org is attracting over 100 signatures every 10 minutes. Yesterday at least 275,000 people had signed.

Petition organiser, Alex Richardson-Lee, 24, explained that it was the “sheer brutality” of the video that drove him to demand for a change in their punishment.

Mr Richardson-Lee, a military medic, said: “These boys are clearly enjoying what they are doing to this puppy.

“The bulldog was obviously terrified and she couldn’t fight back. It just really angered me and I thought, I can’t let this sit.

“The footage is horrifying and the RSPCA inspector involved in the case said it was one of the most harrowing cases she had ever dealt with.”

The footage only came to light more than two years after the offences because an SD card containing the horrific images was found on a supermarket floor. The dog was put down three months later after losing the use of her back legs.