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LOGAN -- Logan police are working on a sadistic animal cruelty case. They say a man held his dog upside down and shot it with Airsoft bullets. Those bullets aren't lethal, but they do hurt at close range.
When police learned of the crime, they took the man to jail. The Jack Russell terrier, named Bean, was taken to the Cache Humane Society shelter.
When Bean showed up last week, kennel manager Joanna Gardner was surprised at how well he interacted with people -- especially after police say his former owner shot his testicles several times with an Airsoft gun.
"Honestly, it breaks my heart," says Gardner. "I mean, I don't understand how people can do that to an animal."
"We had an anonymous call[er] who was aware of the situation, who came forward and told us about what had happened," says Logan police Capt. Jeff Curtis.
Logan police arrested 22-year-old Emilio Hoy. He was charged with animal cruelty.
"He was holding the dog by its tail, upside down, and he was shooting it with an Airsoft gun at close range," Curtis says.
Hoy is now in jail. Investigators say when they first went to his house to ask him questions about the dog, he acted like he didn't know what they were talking about.
"He denied any abuse with the dog," Curtis says.
That's when police told him they had video from inside his Logan house of him shooting the dog. Turns out, someone recorded the incident and gave the video to police.
Bean was taken to the shelter, where people have already called about adopting him.
"We've gotten three calls today, and that's quick," says shelter director Michael Bishop.
It looks like the rest of Bean's story is going to include a loving family.
In a strange twist to this case, when police went to Hoy's house they found he had a gunshot wound. Hoy told police he got into a fight with a man trying to steal parts from his car, and that he removed the bullet himself. Police say they're now working on that case.
E-mail: acabrero@ksl.com
