A wife called cops on her husband after state police say he threw the family’s dog against the wall and then killed it with an ax, after the Chihuahua mix refused to go outside.
As WFMZ-69 News reports, Joshua Leneweaver, 41, of Earl Township, Berks County, was jailed Monday evening on animal cruelty charges after the family dog named, Pip, was killed.
Police: #BerksCounty man killed dog with ax for not going outside. https://t.co/TnWZo97OJu
— WFMZ-TV 69News (@69News) February 18, 2020
“He told her that he was trying to get the dog to go outside,” Trooper David Beohm, a public information officer for Reading-based Troop L, told WFMZ. “The dog wouldn’t go outside. He reached under the table, and the dog bit him. He threw the dog against the wall.”
Realizing that the dog was badly injured, Leneweaver grabbed an ax and killed the dog, according to the court papers cited by WFMZ.
He later allegedly told his wife, who wasn’t home during the incident, there was “no more Pip.”
Leneweaver’s wife called for police to respond to the home Monday night.
State police said they found an ax in a detached garage with blood and hair on it. They also found the deceased dog was in a plastic bag in the garbage can next to the house, the Reading Eagle reported.
Leneweaver faces charges of aggravated cruelty to animals-torture and cruelty to animals, which is a felony.
His bail was set at $2,500.
