XPost: can.politics, ont.politics, bc.politics   
   From: Veni.Vidi@Visa   
      
   The Windsor Star - September 17, 2010   
      
   Windsor dog abuser sentenced to four months   
   WINDSOR, Ont. — A Windsor man who tied a condom on his dog, wounding it so   
   severely that the   
   animal had to be euthanized, was sentenced Friday to four months in jail.   
      
   Anjalo Abeywickrema, 51, a Sri Lankan refugee who has served prison time for   
   manslaughter, got   
   up in court and apologized profusely before being sentenced by Ontario court   
   Justice Lloyd   
   Dean.   
      
   “I’m deeply sad why my dog Tyson had to die,” Abeywickrema said, denying his   
   actions had “any   
   sexual purpose.”   
      
   On May 10, a black Labrador retriever mix was found in a school yard in   
   obvious distress. Its   
   penis was bloody and blackened from being bound in a condom secured by a strip   
   of rubber from a   
   bicycle inner tube.Abeywickrema admitted to having affixed the contraption to   
   the dog a day   
   earlier. It had been “peeing and humping” in his apartment and a friend   
   suggested using a   
   condom as a training device, he said.Abeywickrema said when he tried to remove   
   the condom, the   
   dog bit him. The dog subsequently ran away.   
      
   Abeywickrema looked for the animal but developed chest pains and was   
   hospitalized. Abeywickrema   
   was still in the hospital when the dog was found by city workers the next   
   day.Abeywickrema said   
   he regrets ever putting the condom on the dog, explaining he had been having   
   trouble managing   
   his diabetes and “didn’t think right.” Animal rights activists filled a row of   
   benches in the   
   courtroom, holding hands as if in prayer during the sentencing hearing. They   
   audibly scoffed as   
   Abeywickrema spoke.   
      
   Abeywickrema looked out at them and said, “I’m really, really sorry to all the   
   animal lovers.”   
      
   The judge said he couldn’t allow raw emotion to influence his ruling. He   
   pointed to other   
   animal abuse cases, noting that worse brutality has resulted in lighter   
   sentences.   
      
   In one case, a man who beat his dog to death with a shovel was sentenced to 60   
   days in jail to   
   be served on weekends.   
      
   “This is a much different scenario than taking a shovel and beating the dog to   
   death with it,”   
   Dean said.   
      
   Looking at Abeywickrema, then looking out at the reporters and protesters   
   gathered in the   
   courtroom, he said,   
      
   “I must recognize he suffered a heart attack.… If not for the heart attack we   
   might not be here   
   today.”Abeywickrema has remained in jail since his arrest May 13.   
      
   He was on parole at the time, having been convicted of manslaughter for   
   killing a friend during   
   an alcohol-fuelled argument. Because of the dog incident, his parole will be   
   revoked.   
      
   His animal cruelty sentence will be served consecutively, meaning he will   
   remain in prison to   
   serve the animal cruelty sentence past what would have been his normal release   
   on the   
   manslaughter charge. In both cases he will only have to serve two-thirds of   
   his sentence.   
      
   In an interview outside the courthouse, defence lawyer Kevin Shannon said   
   Abeywickrema will   
   likely be released on both sentences by years’ end. Angela Mullins, an animal   
   lover who came to   
   witness the proceeding, questioned the concept of parole. “If he’d been in   
   jail where he was   
   supposed to be this would have never happened,” she said.   
      
   Assistant Crown attorney Kim Bertholet had argued for a jail sentence of eight   
   to nine months   
   for Abeywickrema.   
      
   Shannon had asked for a three-month sentence.“I think it’s appropriate,” said   
   Shannon of the   
   four-month term.   
      
   Dean prohibited Abeywickrema from living with any pet for five years. Nancy   
   McCabe, field   
   operations manager for the Windsor-Essex County Humane Society said that was   
   the only part of   
   the sentence with which she disagreed. “I would definitely like to see a   
   lifetime ban on animal   
   ownership,” she said.McCabe said she believed Abeywickrema’s remorse was   
   genuine. “I’ve done a   
   lot of these cases. In every other case no one has gotten up and said, ‘I’m   
   sorry.’ You have to   
   give him credit for that.”Other animal lovers in the courtroom weren’t as   
   charitable.“It’s a   
   joke,” some said. One said Abeywickrema should suffer the same fate as his   
   dog.Those words   
   concerned Abeywickrema’s lawyer. He said he counselled his client not to   
   return to Windsor   
   following his release.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)