Loyalhanna man gets 1 year probation on animal cruelty charge

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Loyalhanna man gets 1 year probation on animal cruelty charge

Rich Cholodofsky | Monday, March 18, 2019 5:19 p.m.

A Loyalhanna man will serve one year probation for shooting his brother’s dog.

Walter Buchinsky’s mixed-breed pet Fluffy was shot in the left leg June 10. The dog survived.

Buchinsky’s brother and neighbor, Robert Buchinsky, 60, pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of animal cruelty in court Monday. Prosecutors dismissed a more serious felony charge.

According to court records, Robert Buchinsky admitted to shooting the dog because it was in his yard without a collar.

“It should have been tied up and it jumped too much,” Robert Buchinsky told police.

In addition to the probation term, Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court Judge Rita Hathaway ordered Robert Buchinsky to complete anger management classes and barred him from having contact with his brother.

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