Case Details

Two dogs beaten, resulting in death of one
Barrington, RI (US)

Date: Dec 29, 2002
County: Bristol
Local Map: available
Disposition: Convicted

Abuser/Suspect: Michael F. Kaner

Case ID: 4983
Classification: Beating
Animal: dog (non pit-bull)
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The state Supreme Court has upheld the conviction of a homeless man for beating a dog to death and severely injuring another dog at the home of a Barrington woman who had taken him in.

A Superior Court jury in March 2004 found Michael F. Kaner guilty of two counts of malicious injury to a domestic animal, and a judge sentenced him to four years in prison.

Kaner, then 58, appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that the trial court judge had erred when he allowed the prosecution to enter evidence of a possible sexual aspect to the attacks. That evidence pointed to injuries to one dog's vaginal and rectal areas, and Kaner's lawyer called it "highly prejudicial."

But the Supreme Court ruled that the evidence was "integrally related to one of the crimes which had occurred and of which defendant was accused."

The ruling ends the criminal proceedings in a gruesome incident that horrified the community and prompted many calls to animal-welfare groups.

In late 2002, a Barrington woman, who was not identified, took Kaner in because he needed a shower and a place to sleep, and he told her how much he loved dogs.

She didn't know that he was on parole after his conviction for the "stomp beating" and strangling of his 81-year-old uncle in 1981. "Usually I'm a better judge of character," she told a reporter later.

When she found her Jack Russell terrier severely injured, Kaner told her it had been attacked by a Labrador retriever that the woman was taking care of for a friend.

Late Sunday night on Dec. 29, 2002, the woman brought the terrier to the Warren Animal Hospital. The veterinarian found injuries to the dog's mouth and gums, cuts under its chin, and bruising in its genital area -- injuries he said he'd never seen inflicted by another dog. The terrier died that night. A necropsy later found that it had died from shock due to hemorraghing bought on by blunt trauma, and that there were no bite marks and no wounds indicative of dog fight.

When the terrier died, the woman put Kaner on a bus to Providence. Then she discovered that the Labrador retriever, a male, had also been badly beaten. The Labrador survived.

Police found Kaner on a bench at Kennedy Plaza and he agreed to come in for questioning. He was arrested Dec. 31, 2002.

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References

Providence Journal - July 5, 2005

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