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Case #4760 Rating: 3.8 out of 5
Dog shot and killed with air rifle
Glocester, RI (US)Incident Date: Tuesday, Jun 7, 2005
County: Providence
Charges: Felony CTA
Disposition: Convicted
Defendant/Suspect: Glenn G. Coutu
Case Updates: 1 update(s) available
Glocester police arrested a man accused of killing a neighbor's dog, which he apparently considered a nuisance.
Glenn G. Coutu, 42, is accused of shooting to death a 3-year-old poodle with an air rifle. He was charged with malicious killing of an animal and discharging a firearm in a compact area, and released on personal recognizance.
Police said they got a call night from the poodle's owner, who reported the dog had been shot and killed.
Coutu told the police that the dog had wandered onto his property and was barking at his rabbits, stated Glocester police Lt. Joseph Mattera.
"It's kind of hard to believe that a 3-year-old poodle is going to be that much of a nuisance. It's not like it was a vicious dog. We don't think he had any excuse for killing this dog at all," said Dennis Tabella, of Defenders of Animals.
Police said Coutu should not have taken matters into his own hands. They have no record that he called police or animal control to file a complaint.
The Rhode Island Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is assisting police in the investigation.
Case UpdatesA Chepachet man received a five-year deferred sentence and 50 hours of community service Monday for the malicious killing of an animal, after admitting to shooting and killing his neighbor's pet poodle.
Glenn G. Coutu, 43, of 72 Centre Road, pled no contest in Superior Court to the felony charge of malicious killing of an animal. In addition to the deferred sentence and community service, Judge Jeffrey A. Lanphear ordered that Coutu pay $500 restitution to the animal's owner and issued a no contact order.
The sentence was the end result of an incident that took place on the evening of June 7, 2005. According to Coutu's statement to Glocester Police, he came home from work that day to see his neighbor's pet dog, a 12-pound poodle, barking at a rabbit cage in Coutu's backyard. He then took out a gas-powered pellet gun and shot the dog, Coutu told police.
Veterinarian E.J. Finnochio, an agent of the Rhode Island Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RISPCA), performed a necropsy on the animal. He found that the .177 caliber lead pellet penetrated the dog's chest and lung, and lodged next to the heart.
"The dog bled to death internally as a result of the wound," he said.
Coutu was prosecuted under RI General Law 4-1-5, which sets a maximum penalty for maliciously killing or wounding an animal at two years imprisonment and a $1,000 fine. According to Coutu's statement, the dog was not attacking any person or his pet rabbits, "just barking at the cage."
Before shooting the dog, he made no other attempt to scare the animal or contact its owner, his statement said. Coutu stated that his intent was to shoot the animal, but not to kill it.
Dave Holden, a retired police captain who now handles animal cruelty cases for the RISPCA, said that after reviewing the facts of the case, the society recommended to police that a felony charge was warranted by the act. He said that the police and the attorney general's office both concurred with their assessment.
"We look at all the facts before we recommend something," he said.
The acknowledgment that the animal posed no threat to either people or pets, and that no other less violent attempt to warn or scare the animal was made, combined to make the act malicious in the eyes of law enforcement agencies, Holden said.
"The penalty for a dog being off its leash is not death," he said.
Glocester Police Chief Jamie Hainsworth said that the case was the unfortunate result of the hasty use of a weapon when a more peaceful solution was called for. The CO2-powered pellet gun used by Coutu is "a step up from a BB gun. It gets a lot of punch," he said.
Under the terms of the deferred sentence, Coutu must keep the peace and be of good behavior for a five-year probationary period, or he could be ordered to serve time in prison. Holden said that he believed the judgement was fair. | Source: The Woonsocket Call - Nov 3, 2005
Update posted on Nov 3, 2005 - 6:03PM |
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