Jobless Briton stabs dog to death, faces jail

London, June 8 (IANS) A 19-year-old jobless Briton is facing jail after he battered his new dog with a hammer, stabbed it in the chest and left it to die after the dog urinated on his bed. The man then went in search of a job.

Unemployed Sean Deakin left the male Staffordshire bull terrier dying on the kitchen floor of his flat while he went to register for employment. The dog took eight agonising hours to die.

Deakin owned the dog only a few days earlier, the Daily Mail reported.

A witness to the attack alerted the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), and officials found the dog's body in a bin outside the man's house.

Deakin was arrested and charged with causing unnecessary suffering to an animal.

He denied the offences but was found guilty by a Manchester court, and now faces up to six months behind bars.

Deakin and his girlfriend had taken ownership of the dog just days before the attack after answering an advertisement on a classifieds website.

He struck the dog around 20 times on the head with a hammer. A few hours later, he found the dog had urinated on his bed.

The man chased the dog around the kitchen, trapped it between his legs and stabbed it in the chest with a six-inch knife.