The first person ever to go to jail for cruelty to animals in Spain has been released, a month and a half into his 8-month sentence.

The Judge who sent him to jail stated, “The atrocious death of the horse [called Sorky das Pont] is an aberration of the 21st Century,” and considered that it would be “antipedagogic” (goes against education) to release him.

The appeals court, Superior de Justicia de Baleares, overturned the original sentence of eight months imprisonment for having beaten a horse to death at the Manacor Hippodrome in 2012.

The condition imposed on him for his release was to attend an animals’ rights course.

The man had beaten the horse to death in a race-course stable after it had lost a buggy & horse race in 2012 because it had accelerated out of a trot, which disqualified it.

Note: The photo corresponds to a race earlier in that year.

(News: Palma, Balearic Islands, Spain)