{"id":264838,"date":"2025-07-14T17:56:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T17:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/264838\/"},"modified":"2025-07-14T17:56:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T17:56:13","slug":"bulldog-beaten-up-in-birmingham-in-sustained-attacks-leaving-him-with-fractures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/264838\/","title":{"rendered":"Bulldog beaten up in Birmingham in sustained attacks leaving him with fractures"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bulldog pup, Bernie, was punched by his owner in a series of attacks ‘lasting at least 10 minutes’<\/p>\n

16:53, 14 Jul 2025Updated 16:53, 14 Jul 2025<\/p>\n

\"BulldogBulldog Bernie was attacked by his owner in Birmingham on ‘at least three occasions’ leaving him with fractures and ‘shut down’<\/p>\n

A bulldog was beaten up by its owner in Birmingham with a series of sustained attacks, leaving the dog with a number of fractures.<\/p>\n

Bernie, who was less than a year old, was beaten up \u2018on at least three occasions\u2019 before he was rescued by the RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals).<\/p>\n

The 11-month-old pup was rushed to an RSPCA animal hospital where X-rays showed he also had cheek and multiple historic rib fractures.<\/p>\n

Read more: Dog owner banned after claiming he didn’t notice huge cancerous tumour<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

They showed that he had sustained these bone fractures on at least three separate incidents.<\/p>\n

The RSPCA said: \u201cHeartbreakingly, Bernie\u2019s injuries were consistent with his owner punching him a number of times for a duration of at least 10 minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bernie\u2019s owner, who the RSPCA is not naming as the offences were not recent, received a suspended 12-week jail term and was banned from keeping all animals for life.<\/p>\n

He was also ordered to carry out unpaid work and was fined.<\/p>\n

The RSPCA is highlighting Bernie\u2019s case as part of its seasonal cruelty campaign as it says as it says attacks on animals \u2018peak in the summer\u2019.<\/p>\n

Bernie was treated at the RSPCA\u2019s Newbrook Farm Animal Hospital in Birmingham<\/a> before being transferred to the RSPCA Northamptonshire Branch where he was cared for and later rehomed.<\/p>\n

\"SomeSome of the injuries sustained by Bernie included fractures to his cheek and ribs <\/p>\n

Kate Whitehead from the branch said: \u201cHe was a bit shut down when he arrived, everything was new and he was very uncertain but when we moved him to foster care and got him in a home environment he soon changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe got used to his favourite spot on the sofa and formed a strong bond with his fosters, especially their son.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe became more playful and became the puppy he wasn\u2019t allowed to be before.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe unravelled out of his shell and started lapping up attention.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe became a happy-go-lucky boy, his confidence was being built up, and I think he was reassured that no one was going to hit him again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BernieBernie is now back in good health and enjoying life with his new family after going through hell with his last one in Birmingham <\/p>\n

The RSPCA said after \u2018recovering well\u2019 in foster care, Bernie was rehomed to Lucie Johnstone, 39, Amanda Hunt, 45, and Amanda\u2019s children, Maisie, 19, and Kieran, 18, in Nottingham.<\/p>\n

Lucie described the change that took place in Bernie after her family took care of him, from at first stealing shoes, to becoming one of the family<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cAll of a sudden, about two or three weeks in, he completely changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter that, he settled in really quickly. We\u2019ve had no issues. The only signs of what happened to him is that we have noticed him getting a little upset around men.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs there are no men in our house, except for my step-son, when a man came to fit some carpet in the house, he barked at him which was really unusual.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s barked a maximum of eight times in the whole time we\u2019ve had him. Then Amanda took Bernie into work with her and he saw a man there and became quite animated and sort of bowed down in front of him. But he has absolutely no aggressive behaviour whatsoever.<\/p>\n

\u201cBased on what he\u2019s like now, and when you consider what he must have been through, you wouldn\u2019t necessarily know any of that had happened to him at all!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BernieBernie is now thriving after being rehomed from Birmingham where he suffered sustained attacks being punched by his owner <\/p>\n

Bernie likes porridge \u2013 earning him the nickname \u2018baby bear\u2019 and enjoys playing in the garden where he tries to eat plants.<\/p>\n

Lucie continued: \u201cBernie is just perfect really. He\u2019s cheeky and has lots of personality but not too full-on.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re feeling any stress, he immediately snaps you out of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe gets us out walking, and in nature, and it\u2019s so lovely when he gives you that undivided love – when he\u2019s not being a grumpy teenager!<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all love him, we have a Bernie WhatsApp chat where we share pictures and videos and discuss who is walking him that day.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s very cuddly. He\u2019s put on 5kg since he\u2019s been with us but he still thinks he\u2019s a lap dog.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith our previous dog we had one settee that was for the dog but Bernie wasn\u2019t having any of it, and had to be with us on the settee.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe will just plonk himself down on your knee, even if you\u2019ve got a laptop on your knee, he has no sense of personal space!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJody, aged 29, was last seen at midnight today (13 July).\u201d<\/p>\n

Get the latest BirminghamLive news direct to your inbox<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

An RSPCA spokeswoman said: \u201cSummer should be a season of joy for animals. Long walks on golden evenings. Zoomies on the beach.<\/p>\n

\u201cStretching out in the garden to soak up the sun. But there\u2019s a side to summer you don\u2019t see.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor thousands of animals, it\u2019s a season of pain, fear and suffering, when cruelty peaks.<\/p>\n

\u201cTogether, we can rescue animals from the worst cruelty, provide life-saving treatment, and give them all the care and love they urgently need. Please donate today: rspca.org.uk\/endcruelty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Animal Rescue Officer, Cara Gibbon, added: \u201cTo know that he is now in a loving and safe home is amazing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do the job to help animals have better lives so to know that he is now happy as a result of our work, is a brilliant feeling!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bulldog pup, Bernie, was punched by his owner in a series of attacks ‘lasting at least 10 minutes’…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264839,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,748,393,4884,34839,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-264838","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-rspca-west-midlands","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114852881247352495","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264838\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}