Supervision order for dog owner

And John Edwards, 54, was said to be looking forward to a reunion with his dog after a month apart as Sheriff Brian Mohan rejected a move by the fiscal depute at Dumfries for the dog’s forfeiture.
The two-and-a-half year old collie had been taken into care when Edwards was remanded in custody for a month after admitting causing the dog unnecessary suffering in Thornhill last month, seizing it by the head and repeatedly shouting at it.
The court had heard that he had suspended the collie in the air by its collar and then dragged it on its stomach along the ground and to onlookers it was obviously in distress and was crying and yelping and was taken to an animal rescue centre.
Solicitor David Orr said that that it had been a one-off incident by Edwards, of Queensberry Square, Sanquhar, who had had the dog for more than two years and had missed it while in custody.
He had been tackling a drink problem and had taken treatment while in custody.
The Sheriff made it a condition of the supervision order that Edwards accept alcohol treatment.
Meanwhile, sentence was deferred on Edwards for six months on a further charge – which he admitted – of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner in Sanquhar last October.