WASHINGTON -- A 49-year-old West Richland man said Tuesday that he regrets fatally shooting his hunting dog because he has a "deep love" for animals.
Robert Victor Garsjo was sentenced in Franklin County Superior Court to three months in jail, with the option to do the time on the Washington state Department of Corrections work crew.
The jail term will run at the same time as a sentence Garsjo is serving on an unrelated third-degree assault case in Benton County.
He pleaded guilty last month to first-degree animal cruelty for the Dec. 18 shooting near the Ringold Fish Hatchery. In exchange for his plea, a charge of unlawful use of a firearm for shooting across or along a roadway was dismissed.
"This is something that after the fact I regretted doing. Quite so. And, um, there is not a day that goes by that I think about what happened that morning," Garsjo told Judge Craig Matheson. "I will probably not forget that morning for quite some time to come. I'm pretty emotional about it."
[He felt regret after what he did... or after he was caught? I'm thinking the latter.]
In his written plea statement, Garsjo admitted to shooting his hunting dog several times, causing him "undue suffering."
Garsjo was arrested by Franklin County sheriff's deputies after they received a call about someone shooting a dog near the hatchery. The caller said the suspect drove away in a truck with a Ducks Unlimited decal in the back window, and Deputy Marcus Conner spotted Garsjo's truck and stopped him, court documents said.
Conner said he noticed a large amount of what appeared to be blood on the driver's side of the truck.
Garsjo admitted he shot the dog because it had been barking, would not follow directions and tried to bite him. The dog, which apparently was shot as it ran away from Garsjo, was found dead in a ditch near the road. It appeared the dog had been shot numerous times at close range with a shotgun.
A witness said he didn't see the shooting, but had heard it. He said it was the "most awful thing he had ever heard," documents said.
Another witness said he saw Garsjo shoot toward the dog as the dog ran from the Columbia River toward the road, documents said.
He said the dog was shot as it ran away from Garsjo and shots were being fired directly toward the road, documents said.
Conner noted that the shotgun was filled with birdshot shells and would not reliably and quickly kill a dog of that size, documents said. He said the birdshot shells would have increased suffering and pain before the dog died.
"I have deep love for animals, and I won't be able to own one for quite some time, and that hurts me too. I'm going to respect the court and stay on my medication and continue to see (a licensed counselor) for quite some time because I've come a long way," Garsjo told the court Tuesday.
"I have quite some distance to go yet. But through her I think I can actually get my life back to normal and come out of this a good, upstanding citizen hopefully as my ultimate goal."
Matheson reminded Garsjo that insight is the first step in the right direction, and said he probably won't see Garsjo back in court because he should be successful with following the conditions of his sentence.
(bellinghamherald.com - October 11, 2012)
