Owner jailed after tight condom kills dog

Anjalo Abeywickrema didn’t know what to do with his new dog, Tyson, a three-year-old black Lab mix that urinated and “humped everything” in his house. So he placed a condom on his dog’s penis and secured it with rubber tubing. About 24 hours later, Tyson had to be euthanized after an infection spread from his genitals to his bladder. On Friday, a Windsor, Ontario, judge sentenced the 51-year-old man to four months in jail for cruelty to an animal. The incident occurred in early May.

According to Abeywickrema’s lawyer, Tyson became agitated when the condom was secured. The dog tried to get the condom off, but couldn’t and bit Abeywickrema when he tried to help. Then Abeywickrema brought Tyson outside to calm down. Once outside, Tyson took off. Abeywickrema, a severe diabetic, lost the dog and collapsed — and then suffered a heart attack. A day later, with Abeywickrema still in hospital, Windsor city officials found Tyson and notified the Windsor-Essex Humane Society. An external infection spread internally to his abdomen and bladder, according to Melanie Coulter, the society’s executive director. “If we could have saved the dog, we would have,” Coulter said.



Abeywickrema was out on parole from a manslaughter sentence at the time, said his lawyer, Kevin Shannon. “He stabbed his best buddy in the heart one drunken New Year’s Eve,” said Shannon. When Abeywickrema was released from the hospital, he broke down and told his parole officer about the dog. Shortly after police arrested him, Abeywickrema suffered a second heart attack in jail.

Abeywickrema’s parole was revoked and he has been in prison since his arrest on May 13. The four-month sentence will be tacked onto the remaining manslaughter sentence. Shannon figures his client will serve two-thirds of his time and will be out sometime next spring. Shannon said Abeywickrema has mental health challenges in addition to his severe diabetes. Shannon said he was remorseful in court after pleading guilty to the judge. As part of his sentence, Abeywickrema isn’t allowed to own an animal for five years.