Cape Town - Two of the six men on trial for illegal dogfighting in Plettenberg Bay were convicted and sentenced in East London on similar charges this week.
Anton van Blerk and Owen Butler, who both pleaded not guilty in the Plettenberg Bay case involving dogfighting on a smallholding in Ladywood in May 2011, were tried in the East London Magistrate’s Court on Monday.
Van Blerk was found guilty of being in possession of an animal for the purpose of fighting and was fined R15 000 (or 18 months) of which R12 500 (or 16 months) was suspended for five years.
Butler received a similar sentence for being in control of a property for the purposes of animal fighting. And he was fined R8 000 (or 10 months) suspended for five years, for allowing animals to be kept on his premises for fighting
Both men were also fined R4 000 (or six months) – entirely suspended for five years – for being spectators at an illegal dogfight.
The court also ordered that neither man may, for the rest of his life, own or be in control of a dog.
The pair were among 12 people arrested in October 2008 for being involved in an organised dogfighting event on a Glendene smallholding near East London.
The men will have to appear in the Thembalethu Regional Court in George on May 14 for the Plettenberg Bay case.
They, along with their co-accused, Donald Wall of Victoria Park in Port Elizabeth, Rudi Wall of Queenstown, Peter Wall of Queenstown and Yorick Grobbelaar of East London, have pleaded not guilty.
Garden Route Media