Brian Daniel (Source: Sahuarita Police Department)
A Sahuarita man who beat his dog and tried to choke it to death last fall was sentenced to a year of probation Thursday after pleading guilty to cruel mistreatment of an animal.
Brian Daniel, 70, was also banned from ever owning animals again, said Krisanne LoGalbo, a spokeswoman for Pima County Superior Court.
Daniel was arrested Oct. 16 on two felony counts of animal cruelty. According to Sahuarita police, he said he put the 10-year-old pug “down” because he could not afford medical care, the dog was sick and hadn’t eaten in two weeks. After beating and choking the dog, he put it in a bag, according to police. Law enforcement later discovered the dog was alive. When it was removed from the bag, the emaciated dog staggered toward a backyard wall of the residence, according to police.
Sahuarita’s animal care officer took the dog and a second, healthy dog to the Humane Society of Southern Arizona.
In a letter to the court on Daniel’s behalf, his sister, Nancy Kelly, wrote that the incident was “completely out of character” for him. The ill dog had been left with her brother without his permission. He struggled over the dog’s illness and was “conflicted over caring for the dog and the expense she was to him,” she said.
Kelly expressed her desire for Daniel to be reunited with his “best friend,” another pug named Buddha, whom she said “means the world to him.”
A call and email to the HSSA Tuesday morning asking about the condition of both dogs were not returned.