Daniel Prince
Woman videoed the incident
A Union man faces charges of ill treatment of animals and discharging a firearm into a dwelling. Last Wednesday afternoon, deputies and animal control officers responded to an address on Railroad Street in Monarch for a report of a dog being shot. Deputy Charles Nicholson arrived on scene and spoke with the complainant. She stated she and her neighbor, identified as Robert Perry, were sitting on her front porch when her brown pit bull broke off its chain and ran toward the back of her property. She then heard two dogs barking and fighting. She said she grabbed her phone and started recording as she and Perry ran to the back yard. She stated Perry went to his house and came back out holding a gun. She said Perry began shooting at the dogs to try and get them to stop fighting, but they did not. She said after a few shots were fired at the dogs, Perry then aimed at her dog and shot it multiple times. The first bullet struck her dog in the hip, and it then ran away toward her back porch, away from Perry and his dog. She stated that Perry continued to fire at her dog multiple times. Once her dog was down on the ground, she said Perry took his dog back to his house and put it up and secured the firearm.
Nicholson and Cpl. Stanley then went and talked to Perry, who told them nearly the same thing the woman did. The difference was what happened after the woman’s dog was first hit. He stated that after firing toward the dogs to try and get them to stop fighting, he then fired at her dog and struck it in the hip. He said the dogs kept fighting, so he said he kept firing at the dog until it stopped moving.
Deputy Nicholson watched the video that the woman took, and though the video did not show everything that happened, the audio captured the dogs fighting and shots being fired. At one point in the video, a dog could be heard whimpering loudly, and the video showed the dog running away from the other dog in the direction of the house. After the brown pit bull ran toward the house, the video showed a white pair of legs approach the dog and multiple shots could be heard.
Warrants on 42-year-old Robert Newton Perry were issued Thursday afternoon for charges of ill treatment of animals and discharging firearms into a dwelling.