Two Widely Reported Animal Cruelty Verdicts Handed Down In Baltimore Within A Week

The Baltimore Sun reports that a circuit judge has handed down a animal cruelty verdict of not guilty for a former city police officer, who was charged with slitting a dog’s throat in June of 2014.

This news comes within a week after WBALTV reports that an animal cruelty verdict of guilty was handed down to Terrance Cody, former player for the Baltimore Ravens.

Former NFL Baltimore player on trial>ANIMAL CRUELTY https://t.co/q52SqF0xBk @BeeGeefan1 @caseystutz @Canine_Rights pic.twitter.com/4kYrkrJ3u1

— rusincerely (@rusincerely) November 19, 2015

In both cases, the defendant’s attorneys claimed they were doing the right thing, such as detailed in the previously mentioned source — the Baltimore Sun, Bolger’s attorney Steven H. Levin stated why.

“Rather than have a dog suffer needlessly, a dog that was going to be tested for rabies, he decided to make an incision.”

For Terrance Cody, a case which the Inquisitr also covered at the beginning of his animal cruelty charge, the same previously mentioned source reports that Cody took his dog to the vet hours before Taz, the dog, died.

Cody’s defense attorney, Joe Murtha, was quoted before the verdict, during closing arguments.

“If your intent is to kill the dog and to torture the dog, you’re not going to bring it to the vet on the last day of its life.”

Of the many charges for Terrance Cody — along with illegally having an alligator, he was also charged with neglect for the same animal.

To add, Terrence Cody was aquitted of two acts of aggrevated animal cruelty and is due to serve up to a year of jail time, along with his girlfriend who carries most of the charges, starting in January of 2016. Terrence was already released from the Baltimore Ravens after the initial indictment in February of 2015.

Even further, of the animals under Terrence Cody’s possession, it would be Taz who seemed to be singled out in contrast to the others.

People on social media reacted to the recent news on Cody’s animal cruelty verdict positively, in favor of the punishment however, some also questioned the former football player’s expensive priorities.

What’s wrong with human. This douchebag starved his own $8000 dog. https://t.co/QUNCiZx08Z

— Flacoo ™ (@FIacoo) November 17, 2015

Taz was a Canary Mastiff, or otherwise referred to as a Presa Canario, a rare breed.

When the story about Jeffrey Bolger was first reported, not only are those officer’s actions detailed in a post by the Inquisitr from June, but also the reaction from the police department expressing how appalled they were with his actions.

Then, they took action themselves by suspending him without pay, forcing him to retire.

Unlike Cody’s expensive dog, Nala was a 7-year-old Shar Pei.

In 2009, the mayor acted after the incident with a 2-year-old dog named Phoenix went viral, by working with Maryland SPCA to assemble a task force referred to as the Anti-Animal Abuse Advisory Commission.

The director of that commission, Katie Flory, expressed their disappointment over the final verdict for the officer.

“We are very sad and frustrated to hear that a guilty verdict was not given today. It shows us that we have a lot more work to do when it comes to the egregious acts to animals in our city.”

Prior to the animal cruelty verdicts, CBS’ Baltimore news affiliate also reports on a case of animal cruelty where two men face over 100 apparent animal cruelty charges, for the neglect of 17 animals.

[Featured image of Baltimore court building by Elliot Plack via Flickr is under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0) License]