Men plead guilty to animal cruelty

Five months after father and son from Dartmouth, N.S, were charged with animal cruelty, both men appeared in Dartmouth provincial court and pleaded guilty to the charge.

The men, William and Marcus Armstrong, were charged when Nova Scotia’s Cruelty Investigations Team searched their home, where the team found animal abuse aimed towards their one dog, and eight cats. The men appeared in court on Oct. 9, according to a news release posted on the Nova Scotia SPCA website.

The judge charged them under section 21 (1) of  Nova Scotia’s Animal Protection Act, which states that no person shall cause an animal to be in distress.

The judge forbade William Armstrong from owning any animals for the next 10 years and ordered him to pay a fine of $100 to the court and $1,000 in restitution to the Nova Scotia SPCA.

Marcus Armstrong was prohibited from owning animals for five years and was ordered to pay the same amount to the court and to the SPCA.

The SPCA is an organization founded in 1877 to protect animals from cruelty and it provides leadership in advocacy and animal care. It urges people in the province to contact its confidential, toll free hotline at 1-888-703-7722 if they witness an act of animal cruelty.