A Kentucky man has been sentenced to ten years in prison for burning a poodle to death.
Bryan Matthews Jr. received five years for animal torture and five years for arson, he will serve the sentences consecutively.
Matthews was arrested on June 7 last year after Duke, a miniature poodle, was found burned to death in a restroom at the Henderson County Fairgrounds.
Gina Howard, the dog’s owner found him dead a day after he went missing.
"I’ve never seen this person before in my life," Howard said. She said the dog must have gotten out while her relatives were visiting her home.
"Not knowing and not knowing what they’re capable of made my anxiety 10 times worse by far," she explained.
In a police report, Matthews’s girlfriend said she saw Duke running around Matthew’s father’s home on Washington Street, about a block from where the dog went missing.
She reportedly asked him to get rid of the dog as it had fleas. Mathews left with the dog and came back 20 minutes later saying that he had dropped the dog on Washington Street.
She said that when she got to know the dog had died she questioned Mathews and he told her that he had nothing to do with it.
In a post on the Henderson County animal control’s Facebook page, officials said the suspect pleaded guilty to cruelty and arson charges on Tuesday, June 15.
"Whatever demons he’s fighting we’re going through. I don’t hate anybody I don’t want to put it out there to the community. Am I devastated, and I hurt, yes. I am lost, my kids are hurt, but I don’t want to wish any bad on anyone," Howard said.
In a similar but unrelated incident, a Dublin woman accused of having sex with a part-Rottweiler dog is facing charges of bestiality and buggery with an animal. The incident reportedly happened at her home in December 2019
The 29-year-old unnamed suspect is accused of a single offense under section 61 of the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act.
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