Pet-Abuse.Com - Animal Abuse Case Details: Slitting the throat of girlfriend's Rottweiler

Slitting the throat of girlfriend's Rottweiler
Irvington, AL (US)

Incident Date: Wednesday, Aug 6, 2003
County: Mobile
Local Map: available
Disposition: Convicted
Charges: Misdemeanor

Abuser/Suspect: Kevin Scott Beritiech

Case Updates: 2 update(s) available

Case ID: 1678

Classification: Mutilation/Torture

Animal: dog (non pit-bull)

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A man arrested on animal cruelty charges is accused of slitting the throat of his girlfriend's Rottweiler, authorities said. Kevin Scott Beritiech, 40, of Irvington was charged with misdemeanor cruelty to animals, menacing and two counts of harassment, according to the Mobile County Metro Jail's Web site.

Beritiech was being held at the jail Thursday night on bonds totaling $2,450, a corrections officer told The Mobile Register.

Elizabeth Flott, humane officer for the Mobile Society For the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said Beritiech's neighbors reported hearing abusive noises early Wednesday morning. Flott said she and sheriff's deputies went to Beritiech's home Wednesday afternoon and found a dead Rottweiler on a back deck with a slit throat and bashed skull.

A second Rottweiler was found alive behind a utility building, but its throat had also been slit, Flott said.

Flott said the dead dog was probably 3 to 5 years old and had evidently fought back. The other dog is 7-8 years old and is in good condition at a veterinarian clinic.

Flott said the violence apparently stemmed from a domestic dispute between Beritiech and his girlfriend that started weeks earlier.

Beritiech's cruelty to animals charge is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine. It is a lesser charge than felony cruelty to animals, the so-called "Gucci law" passed by the Alabama Legislature in 2000.

Case Updates

Kevin Scott Beritiech is headed to prison to serve an 8�-year sentence -- the remainder of a 10-year sentence for animal cruelty -- after a Mobile County judge revoked his probation.

Circuit Court Judge Charles Graddick revoked Beritiech's probation after the Irvington man was arrested April 21, 2006, for attempting to purchase drugs during an undercover sting by the Mobile County Sheriff's Office.

Beritiech, 43, was one of 30 people arrested and charged with attempting to commit a controlled substance crime. Around 9:30 p.m. that evening, Beritiech attempted to buy $15 in crack cocaine from someone he thought was a drug dealer, Mobile County Assistant District Attorney Barbie Francez said. The sting took place at Waxton and Walker roads near Grand Bay, with deputies posing as drug dealers.

Francez said that defense attorney David Zimmerman asked Graddick to sentence Beritiech to a drug and alcohol treatment program instead of prison. "The state felt that what he did in cutting the throat of two dogs would not fall under the category of something one would do under the influence of drugs or alcohol," Francez said.

Beritiech was on probation after pleading guilty in May 2004 to fatally cutting the throat of a Rottweiler belonging to his ex-girlfriend. A second Rottweiler that Beritiech attacked at the same time survived.

Mobile County Circuit Judge Edward McDermott sentenced Beritiech to 10 years in prison, suspended that and ordered him to serve 18 months. Beritiech was also sentenced to one year on a domestic violence charge to be served concurrently.

Beritiech's guilty plea made him the first person sentenced to prison under the state's Pet Protection Act, known as the "Gucci Law." The act was passed after Gucci, a Mobile dog, was burned and tortured but survived.

Source: Press Register News - May 26, 2006
Update posted on May 26, 2006 - 9:35PM

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Kevin Scott Beritiech, Thursday became the first person sentenced to prison for felony cruelty to a dog or cat under the state's so-called Gucci Law.

Beritiech, 41, pleaded guilty to cutting the cut the throat of a Rottweiler belonging to the girlfriend and to one count of third-degree domestic violence. Another Rottweiler was also attacked in the same incident, but survived.

The domestic charge, according to court officials, was in connection with an altercation Beritiech had with his former girlfriend in August 2003.

Update posted on May 14, 2004 - 5:00AM

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References

	The Associated Press
	Press Register - May 26, 2006

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Slitting the throat of girlfriend's RottweilerIrvington, AL (US)

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Slitting the throat of girlfriend's Rottweiler
Irvington, AL (US)