Dad sentenced to probation for killing family dog in front of kids (Detroit, Michigan)

Dad RANDY LEE PITTMAN has pleaded guilty to torturing and killing an animal (the family dog no less--AND in front of this kids). For this he gets 2 years of probation.

http://www.thenewsherald.com/articles/2010/05/31/news/doc4c01399770c99353410437.txt


DETROIT: Father sentenced to probation for killing family dog
Published: Monday, May 31, 2010

By Anne Sullivan

DETROIT — A Huron Township man pleaded guilty Wednesday in Wayne County Circuit Court to torturing and killing an animal

Under a sentence agreement, Randy Lee Pittman, 51, was sentenced to two years probation, 200 hours of community service, alcohol and drug testing, and counseling mandated by the probation department. He also cannot own an animal.

Pittman is convicted of shooting his 12-year-old daughter’s dog with an arrow April 27 in the backyard of his house in the 28500 block of Brandes in Huron Township.

When police arrived at the house they found Pittman in the backyard hunched over the wounded animal. The dog, a small 1 ½-year-old beagle mix was still breathing and had a cloth wrapped around its body and gauze bandages on it. Nearby, there was a broken arrow with blood on it.

The daughter told police the dog had gotten off its leash and her father told her to get it. She said she tried to catch it, but couldn’t.

A short time later she heard the dog whimpering, looked out a window and saw her father standing over the dog and an arrow sticking out of the animal’s side.

She said she went outside and her father was trying to pick up the dog. She ran into the house, got her cell phone and took pictures of the dog. The girl said her father moved the dog, she got scared, ran down the street and called her mother to come get her.

The girl told police her dog has gotten off its leash in the past, and her father had threatened to kill it but she didn’t believe he was serious.

Police confiscated five guns and a bow and arrows from the house.

The girl’s sister took the dog to a veterinary clinic where it was euthanized.