Dog owner '˜dangled 12-week old puppy in air from lead'

A man took a 12-week-old puppy out for its first ever walk and cruelly dragged it along the pavement before dangling it in the air from its lead.
Joseph BradleyJoseph Bradley
Joseph Bradley

While Staffordshire Bull Terrier pup “Blue” was a metre in the air Joseph Bradley hit the dog against a glass window in a bus shelter.

When a shop owner witnessed Bradley swinging the dog she tried to intervene but Bradley threatened to smash her shop windows.

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But Bradley of Ansdell Road, Blackpool, then threatened the woman saying he would thump her nephew and Bradley told her: “I don’t tell you how to handle your oranges don’t tell me how to treat my dog.”

Bradley, 26, was found guilty after a trial of using threatening behaviour and causing suffering to Blue.

He was fined £200 and ordered to pay £220 costs.

Jim Mowbray, prosecuting, told Blackpool Magistrates Court: “The woman heard shouting coming from across the road from near the bus shelter. She saw Bradley shouting down a mobile phone clearly angry about something he was walking around dragging the puppy and then swinging in the air once hitting the side of the bus shelter with the dog.

The lady decided to intervene and Bradley was threatening towards her. He was in her face. A woman who worked in the shop contacted the police who arrested Bradley and in interview he told them: “It was the first time I had taken the puppy out – I was training him.”

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Giving evidence, the woman said: “I was scared because he was so angry but I could not have just stood and watched what he was doing to the dog.”

Her shop worker told the hearing: “Bradley was mad – he acted as if the pup was not there. It last for about five minutes swinging it around before she went across to talk to him.”

Bradley told the hearing: “The dog was in a training harness attatched to the lead. Blue was taken to the vet by the police and the vet said he had come to no harm.”

“I did tell the woman from the shop that she was a busy body and what I was doing was nothing to do with her.”

Sentencing Bradley District Judge Duncan Birrell told him: “You abused a member of the public and you were cruel to a puppy.”

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