Marius Tredoux, who was captured on video beating and stabbing a seal pup in Velddrif, has been sentenced to ten months’ correctional supervision. Essentially, Tredoux is under house arrest after the video surfaced, causing outrage across South Africa and the world.
The Swartland and West Coast SPCAs opened a case of animal cruelty, which Tredoux pleaded guilty to.
The stomach-turning two-minute clip shows the pair of fishermen grabbing the pup by the scruff of its neck and bashing it against the deck of the boat. At one point, the fisherman making the video tells his accomplice to give the seal beer. The accomplice proceeds to pour beer over the pup, but eventually becomes fed up with its wiggling. He then grabs the seal’s hind flipper and lifts it off the ground, forcefully pouring beer down its throat.
Before the video cuts, the accomplice can be seen hoisting the seal into the air and smashing it brutally against the boat’s deck.
The two perpetrators in the video were later identified as Rynard Van Der Heever and Marius Tredoux after the footage went viral in June of 2018, and the two appeared in the Laaiplek Magistrate’s Court in the West Coast town of Velddrif on several occasions.
Tredoux has been handed a ten-month jail sentence, suspended over three years. The sentence will be null and void if Tredoux is not found guilty of the same charges within the next three years, and will consider actions including, catching fish in the ocean or river, abusing alcohol or drugs and visiting the ocean or even being found on the beach as a violation of his sentence.
As he is under correctional house arrest for the next ten months, he may only leave his home to go to work, if he is employed.