A Skegness man who shot his dog in the head and body five times has been spared an immediate jail term.
David Malt used an air rifle to wound Kip, a Plummer Terrier, Boston Magistrates’ Court heard on Wednesday.
The bench heard that the dog belonged to his wife but Malt, 62, claimed it was his too.
Prosecutor Marie Stace said police were told that Kip had been barking and Malt had ordered him to go on his bed, which the dog didn’t like doing when people were still up.
After the shooting – which required the rifle to be cocked and reloaded five times – the dog was found cowering and bleeding under a chest of drawers.
“I knew David had shot him with his air rifle,” said Malt’s wife in a statement to police.
A vet decided it was in the best interests of the dog not to remove the fragments of pellets lodged in Kip’s sinuses, upper jaw and chest muscle, the court heard.
Malt was back in court for sentencing, having pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to causing unnecessary suffering to an animal and assaulting his mother-in-law, Una Dingwall, on Christmas Eve last year.
Malt claimed the dog had bitten his wife and, previously, had bitten others.
He had been drinking on the day of the offences but claimed his actions weren’t affected by alcohol.
“But something in his head said the dog had to go,” said Probation officer Jolyon French, reading a pre-sentence report. “He said it wasn’t out of intention to cause suffering to the animal or his wife.”
Roger Lowther, mitigating, said: “Mr Malt is extremely sorry for what he did. His most compelling mitigation is his guilty pleas.”
The defendant, of Everingtons Lane, had no previous convictions.
He was given eight months’ custody, suspended for two years and a 12-month community order with 20 rehabilitation days.
He was ordered to pay £824.38 compensation to his wife for the vet’s fees and £272 in costs and victim surcharge.
For the assault he was fined £120.
Malt was also disqualified from owning an animal for two years.
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