A man has pleaded guilty to crimes in terms of the Animal Protection Act after being caught on video stabbing a seal pup and smashing its body against a boat, the Swartland and West Coast Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) said yesterday. A News24 report notes that Marius Tredoux faced a variety of charges in terms of the National Environment Management: Biodiversity Act after the video emerged last year. The SPCA had also opened a case of ill-treatment, torture and cruelly beating an animal in June last year. Tredoux appeared alongside his co-accused, Rynard van den Heever, in the Laaiplek Magistrate's Court on the West Coast this week. The case against Van den Heever was dismissed, ostensibly because of a lack of evidence. Local SPCA chairperson Colette Mang said that there had been a trial-within-a-trial to determine the admissibility of the video, which was posted on Facebook by a man who received the video after being in the same pub as the two men. Mang said the witness was an acquaintance of the men and had overheard them talking about the seal. The video ended up on his phone as it was apparently paired with one of their phones. He only noticed it about six months later when clearing his phone out. Sentencing was set down for 7 August.