Man jailed after slashing throat of pet dog with carving knife in sickening attack
A man who cut the throat of a dog during a row with his partner has been jailed.
David Owen held the Staffordshire bull terrier by its muzzle and slashed her throat with a carving knife in a sickening attack.
The dog, called Lexi, miraculously survived the ordeal but RSPCA officers said she would have been killed had the blade gone a millimetre deeper.
Owen, aged 40, of Cole Street, Netherton, Dudley, was jailed for five months over the attack on April 1 last year.
Lexi was left with the serious injury, which had been hastily bandaged, for four days before the RSPCA became aware. The thug also sliced at the dog's left ear, leaving the tip hanging off.
When Lexi was examined, it was found a main artery in her throat had been missed by just a millimetre. Experts said contact with the artery would have led her to bleed to death.
The terrier has since gone on to make a full recovery and has been re-homed with a new family.
RSPCA inspector Steve Morrall said: "It really is amazing that Lexi has made such a fantastic recovery.
"The injury she had was serious but against the odds she pulled through.
"If the knife had gone just a tiny bit deeper I would have turned up at Owen’s house to find a dog who had bled to death.
“Instead, despite being severely injured and in a bad way, we managed to get her veterinary help in the nick of time.
“Thankfully she survived this horrific ordeal and I’m so pleased that she has been adopted into a very loving family who dote on her.
“It is difficult to imagine how terrified she would have been and how much pain and suffering she went through because of this callous act of violence.
“The most important thing now is that she has been given a second chance at life.”
Owen, who was found guilty in his absence at an earlier hearing, was also banned from keeping animals for life.
New owner Darren Chambers, from Worcestershire, said: "We went to the RSPCA Birmingham Animal Centre to look around and we saw Lexi.
"The moment the staff told us what had happened to her, I said to my family, ‘we have to get her’.
She needed somewhere nice to live so she could realise that not everyone is like the person who hurt her."
