Two years ago, a video of a shark getting dragged to death behind a high-speed boat went viral on Instagram and sparked outrage across the world. Now, another man involved in the incident will have to serve 10 days in jail for his actions.
Robert Lee “Bo” Benac III, the last individual still facing charges for the gruesome video, pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges in a Hillsborough County courtroom in Florida on Thursday, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
Benac, who was one of the three men originally charged in the case, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of violation of Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) rules and aggravated cruelty to animals.
In addition to having his fishing license taken away for three years, the judge sentenced Benac to 11 months of probation and 10 days in county jail. Benac will also have to pay a $2,500 fine and complete 250 hours of community service, including 125 hours at a local animal shelter.
“We were confident in what we could do and what we could show, but at the end of the day you can never be 100 percent confident in the jury system …,” Justin Petredis, Benac’s attorney, told the Tampa Bay Times. “That was a worry, that the anger and emotions of the jury would outweigh where we were hoping common sense would take over.”
In June 2017, Benac and three other men took a trip to the Gulf of Mexico on their 22-foot Aquasport boat. They posted pictures of their hangout on social media, including a video of the group dragging a shark behind their high-speed boat and laughing at the troubled animal, CNN noted.
Footage of the injured shark went viral after Mark “The Shark” Quartiano, a celebrity shark hunter, spotted the now-deleted video on Instagram and slammed the group for harming the animal.
“They said, ‘Oh, this is pretty cool, look what we did to the shark,’ and I go, ‘Are you kidding me, man?’ “And, that’s when I instantly reposted it and that’s when all the feedback started coming out,” Quartiano told CBS News after he found the footage. “All the people started going crazy and it went viral.”
In December 2017, Benac, Spencer Heintz, and Michael Wenzel were arrested for the viral shark-dragging video, according to an FWC Facebook post. Charges were dropped against Heintz in May 2018, while Wenzel, who piloted the boat at the time of the incident, pleated guilty to two misdemeanor charges in February.
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