That, a Lapeer County visiting district court judge said today, is a "classic question of fact."
And it needs to be heard and decided by a Lapeer County jury, he said.
With that, Judge John Conover bound over for trial Christopher Scott of Lapeer County, who is accused of felony animal cruelty after he failed to euthanize his dog with a crossbow arrow to its head.
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| Christopher Scott, center, and his attorneys |
"It's a fascinating case, but it isn't a difficult case," Conover said during the continuation of a preliminary exam for Scott in Lapeer County district court.
Conover added that in today's world, pets are revered animals, different from the days when one euthanized a dog behind the barn. Conover said those days "are long, long gone."
Scott has an Aug. 10 pretrial hearing in circuit court, after an arraignment today when a not guilty plea was entered.
Also today, Scott, 28, of Goodland Township signed off ownership on Gemma — the 65-pound dog he shot for allegedly mauling his approximately 14-year-old, 20-pound pug named Bambi at his home in March — to Lapeer County Animal Control.
Now Gemma, a Mastiff - Labrador Retriever mix about 2 years old, will undergo an assessment to determine if she is appropriate for adoption, Chief Animal Control Officer Aimee Orn said. She said Gemma has not show any aggression in the nearly four months the dog has been at animal control.
Denis McCarthy, Scott's attorney, said he was not expecting the case to be bound over. He filed a motion asking for the case to be dismissed, saying Scott had just cause for his actions. He argued that Gemma killed the pug and with a handful of young children in the home, Scott did not want to harbor a dangerous dog, so he decided to destroy her.
According to Lapeer County Sheriff's Lt. Gary Parks, who testified today, Scott buried the pug in the backyard and dug a hole in which to bury Gemma after euthanizing her. Parks testified that Scott told him that he took Gemma in a van to a field away from his home, let the dog out 10 to 15 yards and shot her in the head. She ran about 20 yards and laid down, he testified.
Parks testified that Scott thought Gemma was dead and he went to get a tarp for her body. When he returned, she was gone. Scott told Parks that he thought she would die anyway, Parks testified, and Scott didn't go looking for the dog. Gemma was found two days later by an Oakland County man and she had the arrow sticking out of the top of her head.
Lapeer County Prosecutor Tim Turkelson called the case unique and said the court had "a lot to grapple with." He said there was no proof on record that Gemma attacked the pug, only Scott's assumption, and that no one knows the circumstances or which dog was the aggressor. He said Scott did not have just cause for trying to euthanize Gemma.
Even if Scott had just cause, Turkelson said, he violated the statute by, in part, committing the act recklessly with a practice arrow that probably wouldn't kill her, by not doing a close-up kill shot and by not going out to locate the wounded animal — which is what hunters are taught.
He said Scott also initially told Orn that coyotes killed the pug and later, when confronted by Parks, said Gemma killed the pug. On a second meeting with Parks — when Scott agreed to dig up the pug for a necropsy — Scott said that after Gemma attacked the pug, she went after Scott but Scott provided no details. Conover said that Scott's credibility was "less than stellar."
McCarthy said he was not sure if he would renew his motion to dismiss the case in circuit court. Conover encouraged both parties to try to resolve the matter. McCarthy said he "did not know at this point" if a resolution would be worked out.
If convicted of the charge, Scott could be sentenced to four years in prison.
(Detroit Free Press - July 23, 2015)
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