Dog fatally shot in yard
Amherst, NY (US)Incident Date: Saturday, Oct 13, 2007
County: Erie
Charges: Misdemeanor
Disposition: Alleged
Alleged: Christopher Mercio
Case Updates: 1 update(s) available
A pet lover says a neighbor shot her dog for no reason. The owners say they treated their German Shepherd, Candy as if she were their child. Now they're trying to understand why someone shot their dog right on their property.
Bonnie Ttkaczyk has just memories and pictures of her four-year-old German Shepard, Candy. Bonnie and her husband owned three German Shepards.
Amherst Police say that on October 13th, neighbor Chris Mercio's dog somehow got onto Tkaczyk's property.
Police say Mercio told them, he feared for his own dog's life, so he grabbed his gun, and shot Candy, killing her.
Tkaczyk says her dogs were simply playing with Mercio's dog. She says she believes Mercio's medium size dog, Luke, got into her yard through part of a fence damaged by a fallen tree.
After this incident, she says she's afraid to go into her own yard.
Bonnie Tkaczyk said, "The dog wouldn't have had a chance with three dogs, if they wanted to hurt him, but they just wanted to play."
"If you're going to shoot an innocent dog just because he was playing with your dog, what will you do next?"
Next Tuesday, Mercio will be in court on a felony charge of aggravated cruelty to animals. We tried reaching him for comment, but he was not available.
Case UpdatesA judge today ordered Christopher Mercio of Amherst to "have no further contact" with his next door neighbors or their two surviving German shepherd dogs while allowing him to remain free without bail on an animal cruelty indictment.
Mercio, 62, of Hopkins Road, is charged with a misdemeanor and violation indictment handed up against him for the fatal shooting of one of his neighbor's three dogs two months ago.
The retired General Motors engineer declined comment as his attorney, Michael Blotnik, entered not-guilty pleas on his behalf before State Supreme Court Justice Penny M. Wolfgang.
At the request of prosecutor Thomas Kubiniec, the judge also ordered Mercio to turn over to police the bow and arrow that the longtime hunter still has at his home.
Blotnik assured the judge that Mercio had already surrendered all his revolvers, long rifles and shotguns to authorities following his arrest. Amherst police originally charged him Oct. 13 with a felony of aggravated cruelty to animals for shooting and killing of one of his neighbor's dogs.
Mercio testified before the grand jury, which handed down lesser charges.
Mercio faces a possible one year jail term if convicted of injuring animals and destruction of animals, offenses under the state's Agriculture & Markets Law; prohibition of the use of firearms, an offense under the state Environmental & Conservation Law; and an Amherst firearms discharge ordinance.
After the mid-morning arraignment, Mercio declined comment, but Blotnik stressed that the dog problem only arose because the October 2006 ice storm had damaged a portion of the fencing around the backyards of Mercio and his neighbors, Leonard and Bonnie Tkaczyk.
Mercio's German pointer dog had to have sutures to repair wounds caused by one of the Tkaczyk's three dogs when his pet somehow got into his neighbor's backyard and no one came out when he called for help, Blotnik said.
Mercio "feels terrible because he loves dogs, but he felt he had to shoot one of the three attacking dogs because his dog was bleeding," Blotnik said.
Prosecutor Kubniniec did not object to having Mercio remain free without posting any bail and declined comment after the court session. | Source: Buffalo News - Jan 9, 2008
Update posted on Jan 10, 2008 - 1:59AM |
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