N.B. man acquitted of animal cruelty in dog deaths

A Minto man has been acquitted of animal cruelty charges in connection with the deaths of five Pomeranian puppies.

Keith Barton killed the dogs with a hammer in April 2008 when SPCA officers went to his kennel to seize his 13 dogs.

Judge Patricia Cumming found Barton not guilty of cruelty in killing his five dogs but she did, however, find him guilty of injuring a dog.

At the provincial court in Burton on Tuesday afternoon, the judge said during the trial that the evidence showed the dogs were rendered unconscious when they were hit with Barton's carpenter's hammer and therefore they did not suffer.

In the case of one dog, named Jake, who survived, Cumming found it likely that it did suffer pain. The judge found Barton guilty of injuring the dog in contravention of the Criminal Code of Canada.

When Barton testified in November he described the day he killed his dogs as "the worst day of my life, when I had to do that to my babies."

Barton also faced three charges under the provincial SPCA Act of failing to give proper care to his 13 Pomeranians. Cumming ruled Barton failed to give water to these animals and she fined him the minimum of about $120 on each case.

When the sentence was handed down in the provincial court, Barton silently bowed his head.

He did say that he was willing to pay the total fine of about $550 immediately.

The judge gave him a conditional discharge, with the condition that he cannot own a dog or pet for the next 12 months.