“It's the worst thing I've ever seen in terms of animal abuse in 35 years of being an attorney,” said John Evans, the district attorney for Oconto County.
Evans says Friday was the first time he had to charge someone with instigating a fight between animals.
It stems from a situation earlier this month when Paul Detert allegedly tried to train his raccoon dog how to hunt at his home in the town of Maple Valley.
According to a criminal complaint, Detert put the dog in a 55 gallon barrel and then put a live raccoon inside.
“It's horrendous, it's depraved,” said Evans. “You can't even describe what this might have sounded like. And he claimed when he was questioned, he volunteered information that the fight took between five and ten minutes. So to stand there and listen to that, although not being able to see it is unbelievable.”
According to the complaint, when Detert opened the barrel the raccoon was dead and his dog bit him in the hand.
“So he decided to execute the dog by tying it up and shooting it through the head with a revolver,” said Evans.
In the complaint, deputies claim they couldn't see a dog bite on Detert's hand when questioning him.
As for the raccoon, Detert allegedly received it from a friend who has a license to trap them.
“People train their dogs on a lot of different animals out there, raccoons, rabbits, bears and bobcats. There is legal ways of doing so,” said Joe Paul, a DNR Conservation Warden in Oconto County.
Paul says most of the year it is legal to train dogs on animals like raccoons. However, he says it is normally done in the wild. Paul says he's never heard of someone training a dog with another animal in an enclosed area.
Detert is charged, but was never taken into custody.
FOX 11 talked to Detert outside his home. About the situation with his dog and the raccoon, Detert told FOX 11 'it is what it is' and that he had no comment.
Detert is scheduled to be in Oconto County Court on November 6th.
(Fox11online.com - Oct 26, 2012)
