AR-News: (US CA) Puppy beating charges dropped

[Animalara2003 at aol.com]

DAILY JOURNAL
By Michelle Durand, Daily Journal Staff
A Burlingame man who has never been to prison may spend up to two decades 
behind bars after pleading no contest yesterday to beating his girlfriend. 
The case against 46-year-old Duaine Belgarde initially drew extra attention 
because he was also charged with slamming the woman’s 10-week-old puppy against 
a car window. Those charges were dropped yesterday as part of a court-offered 
plea bargain reached before trial motions and jury selection began. Under the 
terms, Belgarde pleaded to one felony count of making threats, one felony 
count of domestic violence and one felony count of dissuading a witness. The 
animal abuse charges were dismissed and Belgarde will receive between 16 and 20 
years in prison. 
The offer is not that far off from what a jury might have returned, said 
Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe. Court convictions would have 
carried just more than 20 years in prison.






full story:

http://www.smdailyjournal.org/article.cfm?issue=04-14-04&storyID=29873 


“I personally cannot get overly worked up about the deprivation of human 
rights in a world where non-humans have no rights at all. Until animals and nature 
have rights, none of us have any rights at all because without animals, 
ecosystems and nature's diversity, rights are meaningless. Humans are a group that 
was never very successful to begin with. Overly territorial, obsessed with 
trivialities, violent, petty, and completely lacking in empathy for other 
species. The world would be a much nicer place without us." Captain Paul Watson 
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