While courts often encounter bizarre cases, this one may take the cake (possibly in a literal sense) – paranoid judges at a strict Jewish court have condemned a stray dog to death by stoning, believing it to be possessed by the spirit of a troublesome former lawyer.
The four-legged offender caught the attention of the Monetary Affairs Court located in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Mea Shearim in Jerusalem when it unexpectedly walked in from the street.
After allegedly ‘terrorizing’ judges and plaintiffs, the dog further refused to exit the court, leading to an unusual theory that it was the reincarnation of a lawyer who had offended the court two decades earlier.
During that lawyer’s outburst, the court became so incensed that it cursed him to return in another life as a dog.
In traditional Judaism, dogs are deemed impure, but with the curse seemingly haunting the court, the only deemed punishment was for local children to stone the animal to death.
According to the local website Ynet, an animal welfare organization called ‘Let the Animals Live’ submitted a complaint to the police regarding Rabbi Avraham Dov Levin, the court’s head.
Nonetheless, he insists that the sentence was never issued.
Regardless, the fortunate pup managed to evade capture and continues to run free, whatever ‘it’ may have been.
