Michael Wenzel (back) and Robert Lee “Bo” Benac (front) have been identified as two of the men allegedly behind a video that went viral of a boat dragging a shark at high speed. Photo: Facebook
You may remember a while back when a video hit the internet of a group of assholes dragging a shark behind their boat. In the aftermath, three men were arrested and charged with two counts of third-degree aggravated animal cruelty and one misdemeanor count of using an illegal method to catch a shark. One of those men has just had the charges against him dropped.
The incident occurred in the summer of 2017, when a shark fisherman named Mark Quartiano received a video on Instagram. In it, a shark was tied to the back of a boat that was going at high speed. Quartiano was horrified. “CAN SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME WTF IS GOING ON HERE????” he wrote when he posted it on social media. “JUST GOT THIS ON MY FEED! SENT FROM @bearjew428 AND @MICHAELWENZEL. FOR ONCE I MAY HAVE TO AGREE WITH @PETA. #WHODOESTHISSHIT #sowrong #notcool.”
Quartiano suspected that the video had been shared with him as a strange sort of brag. “I’ve never, in my 50 years of shark fishing, seen something so cruel and evil. It’s just horrific,” Quartiano told the Herald-Tribune in July. “I guess they sent it to me to see if they could get my blessing, but that obviously didn’t work out as planned. I can’t believe some people. They can be so cruel.”
The video went viral and the men who sent the video and the offenders soon found themselves under investigation by the FWC Division of Law Enforcement. Three men were arrested: Michael Wentzel, 21, Robert Lee “Bo” Benac III, 28, and Spencer Heintz, 23. Charges were dropped against Heintz this week, but Wentzel and Benac are facing up to five years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine for each felony count.
“We’re just very thankful that the state attorney’s Office looked at all the facts in the case as it applied to my client,” Sisco told The Herald-Tribune of Sarasota. “There is recognition that different roles were played on the boat. Mr. Heintz was not involved in any of the conduct that the state determined constituted criminal activity. I think that is clear now.”
