A Keighley man who killed his girlfriend’s dog after smacking the animal so hard it was left with injuries likened to being hit by a car has been banned from keeping animals for two years.

Bradford and Keighley Magistrates’ Court heard Luke Simpson, 27, caused the two-year-old Shih Tzu’s liver to rupture after delivering a single blow in anger because the dog had made a mess on the floor.

Nigel Monaghan, prosecuting for the RSPCA, said the dog, Charlie, had appeared “lethargic” shortly after the incident at 7.30am on October 8 last year, but Simpson failed to take it to see a vet.

The dog, which belonged to his 19-year-old girlfriend Kimberley Stead, died of his injuries later that day.

“A post mortem was carried out and indicated that these injuries were most commonly found after a serious road traffic collision,” Mr Monaghan said.

“One blow caused the dog’s liver to rupture and caused brain damage from the brain striking the skull because of the impact.”

The court heard when Simpson was asked how the dog had sustained the injuries during an interview with RSPCA officers, he said: “I smacked him on his bottom. I didn’t smack him hard enough to kill him.”

Keith Blackwell, acting for the defendant, said Simpson was sorry for the “pain and anguish” caused to his girlfriend.

“The defendant is upset by what he said he did without thinking properly in the agony of the moment,” he added.

The solicitor said the dog’s injury was like a “delayed action bomb going off” and seeking help from a vet may not have saved him, but he said his client should have taken him for help.

Simpson, of Laycock Lane, admitted causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal by subjecting it to physical violence and failing to protect it from pain, injury or suffering.

The court heard he had been out of work for 12 months, but was due to start work as an electrician on a housing project in Liverpool.

As well as banning him from keeping animals for two years, magistrates handed Simpson a 12-month community order with 80 hours’ unpaid work and ordered him to pay £1,000 towards the prosecution costs.