April 15, 2016
An Iranian man has been sentenced to 74 lashes for killing a dog, the Judiciary-linked Mizan news agency reported last Wednesday, after an online video showed the man hurling the animal repeatedly against his car.
The man was arrested several weeks ago in Ardebil province following a complaint by the local head of the Society for the Protection of the Environment.
A video went viral on social networks showing the man hurling the dog against his car and then beating him to death with a shovel. The video showed the car’s license plate, which enabled the police to find the man quickly.
The court also ordered the man to take weekly lessons for a year on how to care for animals, Mizan reported. It said the man was apparently the dog’s owner, but did not say why he killed the animal.
It was the latest in several recent cases of animal abuse in Iran that were brought to light by online videos.
Vice President Masumeh Ebtekar, who heads the Environmental Protection Organization, has frequently denounced ill-treatment of animals. In April last year she called for an investigation after a short film showed several stray dogs being brutally killed, which prompted protests outside her office.