Z
(This version includes clarifications from the original story.)
BROOKSVILLE —A man has been found guilty in Bracken District Court of shooting and killing a neighbor’s dog.
According to owner of the dog, Stephanie Mills-Dunn, her Siberian husky named Z was on a zipline in her yard on Old Oakland Road, when he got loose, and ran a half a mile away onto Abraham Johnson’s property last October and was shot and killed.
Mills-Dunn said her dog hadn’t been loose for more than 15 minutes when he entered Johnson’s property.
At the time of the shooting, Johnson allegedly admitted the dog had not been acting aggressively in any way but he had been told by a family member the dog had killed some of their chickens in the past.
According to Mills-Dunn, she never received any calls saying her dog was killing chickens or in fact received any complaints at all.
Mills-Dunn said she wouldn’t have known her dog had been shot if she and her son hadn’t found Johnson with the dog and seemingly in the midst of loading the body in the trunk for disposal.
Johnson allegedly admitted he brought the dog to the road for disposal but declined to say where or what method he intended to use.
Then-Bracken County Sheriff Howard Neimeier said to lawfully shoot an animal on private property the animal must be in the act of chasing/attacking livestock/pets or people.
Johnson, 31, was found guilty of second-degree cruelty to animals in Bracken District Court court on Tuesday, a class A misdemeanor offense which is defined as the defendant intentionally or wantonly subjected an animal to cruel or injurious treatment and not in defense of self or another pet, person or livestock.
Mills-Dunn said she’s happy about the guilty verdict but nervous about sentencing, Johnson will receive his sentence in court on April 4, at 9 a.m. — sentencing could include a fine of up to $500 and/or 12 months in jail.
“I know that no matter what he’s sentenced to it won’t bring our dog back and it’ll never feel like it was enough. I’m definitely hoping for the maximum but still feel like it isn’t enough, I don’t know if closure is attainable right now,” she said.
Z had been family. Mills-Dunn said the family got him as an 8-week-old puppy and he was just shy of 2 years old when he was killed. She said this has been very difficult for her family.
“We’ve discussed moving, I kind of just want to be done with this family. I have to pass their driveway four times a day, I’m a stay-at-home mom and I drive my daughter to and from school and pass their house each time there and back. So four times a day I have to pass by the driveway where I found him (Johnson) standing over my lifeless dog,” she said.
Mills-Dunn said leaving her home would be a difficult decision for her family to make though because her daughter has only gone to her current school and still has a few years left.
“We want to leave because of what happened but at the same time we don’t want them to be the reason that we leave, they’ve taken so much from us already. If we left it would be like a victory for them,” she said.
According to Mills-Dunn, her pet had never hurt anyone, was very gentle and just a big goofy dog.
“He was just a big sweetheart. Like if our cat wanted his food, even if her bowl was full Z would still step aside and let her eat out of his bowl. When she had kittens he would lay with the kittens and when the kittens got bigger he played with them. He was just such a sweetie,” she said.
One good thing Mills-Dunn said that came out of what happened to her dog is that maybe now people will understand there are consequences for shooting another person’s dog.
“Maybe people who originally thought you could shoot a dog just for the dog being in your yard now understand that they can’t, that it is against the law. So hopefully this case, if one good thing comes out of it despite the fact we lost our dog maybe his exposure will save lots of other dogs,” she said.
She said what makes it so hard is that (as admitted by Johnson) her dog hadn’t been hurting anybody, he hadn’t made any signs of aggression. Her dog was simply in Johnson’s yard and was killed for nothing.
Mills-Dunn said she wants to express her heartfelt thanks and gratitude to those in her community and beyond who have shown her family so much compassion and support.
“We didn’t know so many people were going to care the way they did and that’s just amazing to us, it just means the world to me,” she said.
