Two Brothers Found Guilty Of Torturing Their Family Pit Bull
Two brothers in Michigan were found guilty of animal torture this week after a jury heard testimony about the pain they inflicted on their family’s pit bull. In the hearing, one witness testified seeing the two brothers, Nicholas Conley, 31, and Benjamin Conley, 34, torture the pit bull. The court heard testimony that the younger brother held a rope or chain from the roof of a house and that the older brother helped as the pit bull, named “Killer,” dangled at the end of it struggling to breathe.
The witness recalled that the dog hung there for several minutes. The jury also heard testimony that the pit bull has been stabbed multiple times, according to The Detroit Free Press.
The younger Conley brother’s attorney Adam Rumschlag expressed his disappointment about the jury’s verdict, claiming that the brothers did not deliberately torture the family’s pit bull, saying, “My client and his brother still maintain that they did not intentionally torture this dog, as was portrayed by the state.”
Rumschlag said that the Conley brothers were hanging the dog from the roof in an attempt to control the pit bull from lunging. Rumschlag claimed that the pit bull had been stabbed in self defense.
In an inconsistency with the defense, the brothers had placed the pit bull in a shallow hole in the yard. Then, they leashed the dog to a short chain while it was in the shallow hole. The chain was attached to a cinder block in such a way that the pit bull could not lift its head.
The conviction of animal torture is a felony. The brothers were also found guilty of conspiring to torture the pit bull. The Conley brothers could be sentenced to four years in prison for their crimes. They will learn their fate on September 24. The sentencing will be issued by Ingham County Circuit Court Judge William Collette.
The brothers might appeal the guilty verdict, claiming they only acted in self defense after the pit bull became aggressive. The dog was said to have attacked Benjamin Conley’s 13-year-old son. Public commentary on the Fox47 report indicates people are interested in starting an animal abusers registry that would function the way the national sex offenders registry does. People are stressing their beliefs that pit bulls do not act aggressively unless they have been victims of abuse. A Facebook page called Logan’s Law calls for legislation for a registry of people convicted of animal abuse and torture.
Just this month, The Inquisitr reported of another case of alleged pit bull abuse after an 18-year-old also claimed self defense after shooting an arrow into the animal’s side. Also this month, The Inquisitr reported that a Washington woman was charged with animal cruelty after she allegedly drowned four pit bull puppies in her toilet. We want you to weigh in by commenting below. Do you feel the acts inflicted on the pit bull constitutes animal torture, or were the brothers justifiably punishing the family dog?
