Doylestown police say 39-year-old Paul Bevan-Xenelis, 39, has been charged with cruelty to animals in connection with the July 24 shooting. Doylestown Country Club officials say he has been fired.
Police say he tied the dog to a fence and shot Kane in the head at least 32 times as the dog was tied to a fence, Doylestown Township police said Monday.
Eight .22 caliber slugs were recovered from the dog's body, they said.
But Kane did not die immediately from his wounds. Instead, Bevan-Xenelis left the wounded dog tied to the fence at the Doylestown Country Club, where he worked.
Police officers responding to an anonymous call around 9am found the dog under the fence at the rear of a maintenance building. The dog appeared to have fresh wounds to its face and head, they said.
The dog was taken to the SPCA where he had to be euthanized to end his suffering.
ID tags on the dog identified the owner and gave the dog's name.
Initially, they thought Bevan-Xenelis was the victim; that someone had stolen his beloved pet and tortured it to death, leaving it to die on the fence.
However, Bevan-Xenelis told them that he only shot the dog after trying to poison him to death didn't work. Apparently, he laced hot dogs with insecticide but either Kane refused to eat them or if he did eat them, they clearly didn't have the desired effect: death.
Bevan-Xenelis told police that his dog had bitten one of his co-workers at the Doylestown Country Club on Friday, July 22.
Bevan-Xenelis didn't take his dog to the vet and have him euthanized. He didn't contact the rescue he adopted the dog from. He didn't take the dog to the pound and surrender him. Intead, the next night, Saturday July 23rd, he took Kane to the Doylestown Country Club and tied the dog to a fence near a maintenance shed, police said.
He told police he left the dog there that night, but returned Sunday around 5 a.m. and shot the dog. He told police he only shot Kane once in the head. But clearly the vet report showed otherwise; that Bevan-Xenelis had shot him 32 times.
Bevan-Xenelis told police he had intended to come back later and bury the dog.
Bevan-Xenelis is a father of two young children and had adopted the dog as a family pet. Police are puzzled as to why the man would subject his pet to such cruelty.
"The unbelievable cruelty is what jumps out at you," Doylestown Township Police Chief Stephen White said Monday. "To shoot a dog 32 times in the head is obviously gross cruelty. And then to leave the dog laying there suffering is beyond horrible."
On Monday, a spokeswoman for that rescue group confirmed that Bevan-Xenelis did adopt the dog from them. She said the group was working with authorities on the case, and would prefer not to be identified publicly due to the violent nature of the offense.
She said the group and its volunteers were "devastated" and "heartbroken" over the attack on the dog.
The dog did not carry a county dog license, which eventually led police to charge Bevan-Xenelis additionally with having an unlicensed dog.
Animal cruelty is a misdemeanor in Pennsylvania, White said. If found guilty, Bevan-Xenelis could face a maximum of a $10,000 fine and up to 5 years in jail.
SPCA director Anne Irwin said Monday that the case is a strong one.
"The DA’s office and judges in Bucks County have always taken a strong stance on cruelty to animals," Irwin said. "I have confidence that this is going to be taken seriously in court."
(Doylestown Patch - August 2, 2011)
