You should all be locked up

Sep 5 2007 By Emma Cullwick, Birmingham Mail

A JUDGE admitted his "hands were tied" by the law when he was only able to fine a group of men for their involvement in a "sadistic and merciless" dog fight in Birmingham.

District Judge Kal Qureshi revealed his frustration when it came to sentencing 14 men for their part in an horrific dog fight in the back room of a kitchen interiors shop in Alum Rock Road which left two dogs dead.

According to Section 5 of the Protection of Animals Act, the offence carries a maximum fine of £2,500 and is not punishable by way of a jail term, he said.

"My hands are very much tied in terms of sentencing," said the district judge at the hearing at Birmingham Magistrates Court yesterday.

"I personally, at this stage, cannot think of an offence that in this present climate is more serious but that carries this limitation on its sentence."

Fining the men a total £12,300, and ordering them to pay £80 each to cover prosecution costs, District Judge Qureshi described the fight as inherently cruel.

"It can only be described as a sadistic event," he said. "It involved inflicting merciless and unimaginable pain on the animals, without pity for them."

The court was shown video of the two pit bull terriers being goaded into a bloody fight to the death.

In one of the largest dog fights to ever have been uncovered in Britain, police swooped in February last year after neighbours reported hearing disturbing noises.

Officers found the two dogs lying in pools of their own blood. One of them had been stuffed in a cupboard.

At a previous court hearing the 14 men pleaded not guilty to attending a dog fight, but over the last two days they changed their plea to guilty.

Zahoor Hussain, aged 40, of Foley Road, Ward End, and Waqqas Mughal, 18, of Unett Street, Smeth-wick, admitted possessing a pit bull terrier, making it fight other animals, attending a dog fight, and causing the unnecessary suffering of a dog in connection with the incident. They are to be sentenced next week.

Intikab Hussain, 31, of Sladefield Road, Ward End, and Barkat Hussain, 42, of Unett Street, Smethwick, deny the same four charges.

Mamoon Iftikar Ahmed, 24, and Umar Iftikar Ahmed, 26, both of Phipson Road, Sparkhill, deny attending a dog fight and keeping premises for fighting.

Zahir Ahmed, 31, of Bevington Road, Aston, and Sohail Hussain, 27, of Parkfield Road, Saltley, deny attending the fight and possessing a pit bull terrier.

Yasser Mohammed Khalid, 25, of Rotton Park Road, Edgbaston, Majid Mushtaq, 28, of Preston, Lancs, Nabeel Mohammed Safdar, 25, of Ash Road, Saltley, and Imran Arif, 29, of Sandway Gardens, Washwood Heath, deny attending a dog fight.

(Proceeding)