Boice, 36, of Tompkins got a stern lecture from Delaware County Judge Carl F. Becker for resorting to deadly force instead of calling law enforcement to request that the dogs be collared.
Becker described the killings of the two dogs, named Kodah and Mush, as a “very disturbing incident.”
He also issued an order of protection that prohibits Boice, employed by the county highway department, from having any contact with the dogs’ owners, Carole Mahoney of Walton, and her daughter, Rebecca. That order will stay in effect through March 2, 2018, when the period of probation expires, Becker noted.
The judge said Carole and Rebecca Mahoney were “understandably upset and distressed” by the deaths of their beloved pets, and that the financial restitution would not compensate them for the loss of the companionship they enjoyed with their huskies.
Boice told the judge he was under the impression when he shot the dogs that he was legally authorized to do so because they were on his property.
“I felt I did (have authorization) at that time, but now I realize I did not,” said Boice, who pleaded guilty to two counts of unjustifiably killing the dogs following a plea deal reached with Delaware County District Attorney Richard Northrup.
He also stated: “Both animals were running together on my property that day.”
He pleaded guilty to two counts of animal cruelty for violating Section 353 of the state Agriculture and Markets Law, which prohibits “overdriving, torturing and injuring animals.” The dead huskies were located off Finch Hollow Road in Tompkins last March after the Mahoneys spent weeks searching for them.
Becker explained the amount of restitution that Boice was allowed to pay in $200 installments until the debt is fully paid was based on $800 as the value of each dog, plus two cremation fees of $125 each.
Boice’s attorney, William H. Schebaum of West Oneonta, told The Daily Star following the proceeding that the dogs had been “terrorizing the community” in the weeks leading up to the deadly encounter with Boice.
“The owners just let those dogs run free for months,” said Schebaum, maintaining the dogs had attacked deer and chickens.
Carole Mahoney disputed that characterization, saying other huskies in the Walton area had been causing problems. She did acknowledge one of her dogs killed a chicken belonging to a friend of Boice, suggesting the killings were premeditated.
She also said she was skeptical of Boice’s claim that the dogs were on his property when he shot them, noting he removed the dogs’ collars when he dumped their carcasses into a ditch.
Carole Mahoney said she has not yet mourned the dogs’ deaths because she has been focused instead on helping her daughter deal with the emotional trauma from the episode.
“As a parent, you want to fix things for your kids,” she said. “But I was unable to fix this. I watched my daughter suffer for months.”
She said the act of killing dogs in the manner Kodah and Mush is clearly inhumane.
“If you saw those dogs with holes in the middle of their heads,” she said, “you’d have to ask: What kind of a human being would do this?”
Clad in a grey sweatshirt, Boice was handcuffed in the courtroom and taken to the Delaware County Correctional Facility to begin serving the sentence. With time off for good behavior, he could be released as early as March 18.
The terms of his probation, as recommended by the county Probation Department, prohibit him from owning weapons while he is on probation, Becker said.
Boice, in a six-count indictment issued last year, had also been charged with two felony counts of criminal mischief and two misdemeanor charges of taking the dogs’ collars. Those four charges were dismissed as part of the plea deal approved by Northrup and accepted by Becker.
Schebaum said state law, up until several years ago, had allowed landowners to kill dogs running deer on their property. But that statute was later amended to allow only police and conservation officers to kill canines under specified circumstances, he said.
(The Daily Star-Mar 3, 2015)
Another case of dogs before people. Here dogs were let to run wild, even kill other animals and it's the human that put an end to it by shooting them that gets sentenced, not the effing OWNER WHO CAUSED ALL THIS BY THEIR NEGLIGENCE.
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