A Texas man was sentenced to 15 years in prison after police say he beat a puppy to death with a metal rod.
55-year-old Gary Kennedy was sentenced to the maximum amount of time possible, two years after his initial arrest in San Antonio, Texas KSAT reported.
Kennedy was arrested in August 2014 after he beat a shar pei mix puppy named Boscoe to death. Surveillance cameras at a construction site recorded him attacking the puppy and then dragging the puppy’s body away in a garbage bag, according to San Antonio Animal Care Services. ACS Cruelty Investigators and SAPD’s East Patrol Property Crimes Detectives immediately investigated the incident and arrested Kennedy a few weeks after Boscoe’s death.
Authorities are pleased with the outcome of the case.
“We know that there’s an established link between animal cruelty and human violence that must inform our response to these cases,” ACS Field Supervisor Audra Houghton said in a statement on the day of Kennedy’s sentencing on June 27, 2016. “This conviction supports addressing that progression of violence and stopping it before hurting pets turns into hurting people.”
Houghton said the conviction sets a new benchmark for animal cruelty cases in Texas.
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