Man guilty of getting dog drunk on lager and vodka

Published on Tuesday 6 January 2009 20:49

A MAN has become the first person in Britain to be convicted of getting a dog drunk.

Andrew Wilson, 31, forced the dog to drink cans of Stella Artois lager and topped up its water bowl with vodka.

He laughed as the confused American bulldog called Bronx struggled to stay on his feet and battered the animal with a broken chair leg.

Neighbours heard the dog whimpering in agony as Wilson beat it on its head and back.

Police raided the house in Southmead, Bristol, and found five-year-old Bronx bleeding, shaky and unsteady on his feet. The dog still had 50mg of alcohol in its blood 11 hours after it was rescued by the RSPCA.

Wilson, a jobless chef who was dog-sitting at the time, is the first to be convicted of the offence introduced under the 2006 Animal Welfare Act.

He was sentenced to 150 hours' community service and banned from keeping any "warm-blooded mammal for a year". Bronx has been taken into care at an RSPCA centre.