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Captain the German shepherd is shown in a handout photo being treated at an animal hospital. He did not survive.The Canadian Press

A Vancouver man who beat his dog with a baseball bat and left it for dead in a dumpster has been sentenced to 60 days in jail and given a lifetime ban on owning pets.

Brian Whitlock, 26, pled guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to an animal after his German shepherd, Captain, was found nearly dead in a Kitsilano dumpster last July. The dog died the next day in a veterinarian clinic.

Justice David St. Pierre said he accepted Whitlock had been experiencing psychotic episodes when he tried to kill his dog. During the trial, Whitlock testified that he believed his dog had been poisoned or cursed and needed to be put down.

Because Whitlock has already been in custody for 53 days, he will only serve seven more days in jail. He was also sentenced to three years of probation.

Marcie Moriarty, chief prevention and enforcement officer with the B.C. SPCA, said she is relieved the judge imposed a lifetime ban on owning animals, but wished a bigger statement had been made with the jail sentence.

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