Neighbour stabbed dog to death ‘to protect pet Labrador from attack’

A COMPANY director stabbed his next-door neighbour’s dog to death with the “largest knife he could find” after it attacked his pet Labrador on his property, a court has heard.

Coventry Magistrates Court was told that Mark Deeley was heard calling out the name of the german shepherd before it was stabbed in the heart on November 26 last year.

Deeley, 49, denies a single count of criminal damage, claiming his actions were reasonable in the circumstances to protect his own dog. The Crown alleges Deeley acted without lawful excuse when he killed the animal at his home in Coventry.

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Finuala Sheridan, prosecuting, said the five-year-old german shepherd, named Max, belonged to Deeley’s neighbours Susan Kaur and her brother Tarlo Singh.

She told the court there was “something of a history” between the neighbours. “What follows is the subject of a factual dispute but it seems that, for whatever reason, Max attacked the golden Labrador.

“Mr Deeley, in his subsequent interview, says that at that point he left the two dogs, went through his house, where he picked the largest knife that he could find.

“Mr Deeley returned to the dogs, who he would say were still fighting, and then, he says, in order to protect Bertie, he stabbed Max.”

The case continues.

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