Man denies animal cruelty charge

DOVER-FOXCROFT — A Dover-Foxcroft man on Monday pleaded innocent to cruelty to animals in connection with the fatal shooting in April of his neighbor’s 17-week-old puppy.

Jeffery Harrison, 28, of Range Road entered the plea during his initial court appearance before Judge Jessie Gunther in 13th District Court.

Harrison, whose trial is set for 1 p.m. June 22 in the Dover-Foxcroft court, requested a court-appointed attorney.

Because the shooting is classified as a criminal rather than civil matter, Harrison could face up to a year in jail if found guilty.

R. Christopher Almy, district attorney for Penobscot and Piscataquis counties, told Gunther on Monday that a jail sentence is a “definite possibility” in the case. Harrison also could face a fine of $250 to $2,000.

Police learned of the killing when Harrison’s wife, Treasa Harrison, notified them that her husband had shot and killed a dog that had viciously approached him.

According to Dover-Foxcroft Police Chief Dennis Dyer, Harrison discovered the dog eating from his pet’s dish outside the Harrison home.

“He stepped outside to scare away the dog, but the dog came towards him, Harrison became afraid and he shot it,” Dyer said after the incident.

The dog’s owner, Jason Clark, said shortly after the incident that his dog was only a puppy and would never have approached Harrison viciously. He said the animal, named Mullighan, was a rare, purebred, white Labrador retriever that was wearing a collar and tags. Clark said the dog normally was allowed to roam on the family’s considerable acreage under the watchful eye of Clark’s parents.

The minute Mullighan disappeared from his mother’s view that day in April, she and her husband began a search for him and found him lying on the snow near Harrison’s dog, about 20 feet from Harrison’s home, according to Clark. It had been shot.

A veterinarian did an autopsy on the dog for Clark and determined that the animal had been shot at point-blank range. Its head was lowered and it was eating, because there was food in its mouth and esophagus.

Harrison, who works in the woods and had not seen the dog previously, said he thought the dog was wild and that he was concerned about rabies. When he learned that it was his neighbor’s dog, he said he apologized to the family.

Outside the courtroom Monday, Almy called the shooting and killing of the animal a “despicable” act that deserves jail time.

“This dog was just a little puppy” and the evidence, he said, will show that it was shot in the back of its head.