COUPEVILLE — A man beat a dog with a pickax and shot it to death Sunday, because it had killed a chicken at a Coupeville home, according to the Island County Sheriff’s Office.
A 911 caller told dispatchers a man was beating a dog around 4:30 p.m. in the 900 block of Gainsborough Road. Deputies believe the man, 36, was angry because the dog had killed a chicken in the neighborhood. He followed the Bernese mountain dog to its home, where he beat the dog with a pickax before shooting it with a .22-caliber rifle, said sheriff’s detective Ed Wallace.
The dead chicken did not belong to the shooter, and it’s unclear why he reacted in the way he did, Wallace added. The man was arrested for investigation of first-degree animal cruelty, second-degree malicious mischief and unlawful possession of a firearm.
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