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WEST VALLEY CITY -- A man who beat his ex-girlfriend's puppy while recording the act on a phone voice mail message took a plea deal in court Wednesday instead of moving forward to a trial.
Anthony Spidle pleaded guilty to felony animal cruelty and witnesses tampering.
His defense attorney, Dean Zabriskie, said Spidle felt it was the right move to take responsibility, and his client was moving forward, trying to turn his life around.
"This young man has a little bit of a history of drug and alcohol abuse," said Zabriskie. "He was under the influence of those substances when this happened."
Spidle's mother Jodi Spidle said the dog beating was completely out of character for her son.
"Anthony is a good kid. You know, he's been raised with animals his whole life," said Spidle. "It was a crazy point in time in our own life. There was more things adding up to this."
She also mentioned her son's struggles with alcohol and said she was struggling through an abusive relationship at the time, and that was hard on her son.
Spidle said she was also grateful her son was standing up and straightening out his life. While in jail, she said he received his GED and had been through an anger management program.
Animal advocate Anne Davis, executive director of the Animal Advocacy Alliance of Utah, said she was pleased with the outcome, calling it a nice culmination of a horrifying event.
"We can send a message out loud and clear that violence is violence, whether it be toward a child or a dog, and we won't tolerate it in Utah," said Davis.
She was also pleased that Henry's law has now been used successfully in charging an adult with felony animal cruelty.
Court documents outlined the abuse the puppy endured at the hands of Spidle. Prosecutors say on March 21, Spidle's ex-girlfriend could hear in her voice mail message "the sound of the puppy yelping severely, being thrown around and being beaten in the background." She also heard Spidle saying, "She doesn't love me, and she doesn't love you."
Spidle is scheduled to be sentenced in January.
E-mail: rjeppesen@ksl.com
