A Florida man who dragged a shark to its death from a high-speed boat has been jailed for 10 days.
Robert Benac III will pay a $2,500 fine, perform 250 hours of service at an animal shelter and lose his fishing licence for three years after pleading guilty to misdemeanour of animal cruelty.
Benac accepted the plea deal just as he was about to go on trial on Thursday for a more severe felony charge of aggravated cruelty to animals, according to The Bradenton Herald.
A second man, Michael Wenzel, accepted a similar plea deal over the incident in February and he was also required to serve 10 days in jail over five weekends.
It is understood charges were dropped against a third man, Spencer Heintz, who was also arrested.
The case came to light when the video of the men dragging the shark behind a boat in July 2017 went viral.
The men can be heard laughing in the footage which was posted on social media.
“Look, it’s already almost dead,” one of the men says in the video as he points towards the shark.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission launched an investigation into the video.
Following the incident, other videos emerged showing the men shooting a shark and pouring alcohol down the throats of live fish.
