A South Carolina man has been sentenced to five years in prison for binding a dog’s mouth shut with tape, causing it to swell and require surgery in what a judge reportedly described as a “hell on Earth.”William Leonard Dodson, 42, was handed down his sentence on Friday, one day after he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for an unrelated federal gun charge. He will serve both sentences concurrently, The Associated Press reported. Circuit Judge Markley Dennis, in sentencing Dodson to the state’s maximum punishment for animal cruelty, said he wished the penalty could have been harder. Her tongue, which was seen sticking out of her mouth, had turned black from a lack of blood circulation. Aldwin Roman, anti-cruelty and outreach director for the Charleston Animal Society, called Friday’s sentence “as good as we could expect.”

Source: Huffington Post March 26, 2017 18:45 UTC