Man who beat dog gets 10-month term

SKOWHEGAN – A Canaan man who permanently blinded a dog by beating it with a walking stick in June was sentenced Wednesday to 10 months to the Department of Corrections.

The sentence meted out to Keith Cordice, 28, will be served concurrently with a 15-month sentence he received earlier this year for a probation violation.

Cordice initially was charged with felony aggravated animal cruelty and cruelty to animals, but Justice Joseph Jabar reduced the charge Wednesday in Somerset County District Court to a misdemeanor charge of cruelty to animals.

The Canaan man had been on probation for a prior burglary when he struck Bud, a yellow Labrador retriever, twice with a walking stick. Cordice told police that he struck the dog twice with the stick after it repeatedly jumped in and out of Cordice’s parked car.

The dog, owned by Carl Clarke of Canaan, was found more than a week after the attack, bleeding, blinded and dazed, wandering in a trash-filled gravel pit about five miles from Cordice’s home.

Somerset County District Attorney Evert N. Fowle, who prosecuted the case, noted Friday that Cordice received one of the harshest punishments ever handed out for cruelty to animals.

“I just thought what he did was horrible,” Fowle said. “He already had a long record of violations. People who treat animals in this fashion can be counted on to abuse people as well, and he already has a prior record of doing this.”

The dog is recovering from the injuries, according to Clarke.