CEO Fined $5,000 for Kicking a Puppy

Des Hague, the former CEO of U.S. catering company Centerplate who was caught on camera kicking a puppy in an elevator, has been fined $5,000 and banned from owning an animal for three years.

Hague pleaded guilty to animal cruelty in February after surveillance footage from a Vancouver hotel elevator surfaced in August 2014. It showed him kicking a Doberman puppy five times and tugging the dog into the air by its leash, reports CBC News.

In the wake of the incident, Hague resigned from the top job at the company, which employs around 30,000 staff. He was also ordered by Centerplate to donate $100,000 to animal charity.

“Clearly this is something I am very, very sorry about,” he told the court on Wednesday. “I can assure the court these incidents will never happen, ever again.”

[CBC]