Back in April we told you that a dog-fighting ringleader had been found guilty of his crimes of animal cruelty and would be sentenced July 11. Judge Thomas E. Flaherty has just handed Darryl Bryant a sentence of 39 months to 6 ½ years in prison.
Bryant’s mother’s Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania home had been raided in February, revealing 13 pit bulls and mixes stacked in basement crates and chained up outside. They were malnourished and injured. Police found dog-fighting paraphernalia and blood-spattered walls, clearing betraying the unspeakable horrors that had taken place.
Jurors had seen photos of the property, as well as of the dogs’ extensive scarring, and it took them less than two hours to come back with a guilty verdict.
Most of the dogs were so “emotionally traumatized” and wounded that they had to be euthanized. Two of them were saved, rehabilitated and adopted into loving homes, where they will experience many things, like televisions, for the first time.
“Even though they’re not human beings, I believe it was cruel and horrendous,” Judge Flaherty said of Bryant’s treatment of the dogs.
Bryant’s attorney, Samir Sarna, asked for a paltry one-year sentence, but Judge Flaherty told the court he sees dog fighting “as a crime that has reverberations on society,” and wanted to pass a sentence that would “deter others from dog fighting.”
He will serve a minimum of 39 months, with his 81 days at the Allegheny County Jail being deducted, and a maximum of 6 ½ years. He is also sentenced to 11 years of probation, during which time he will not be allowed to own or even care for an animal.