‘Animals Have More Rights Than I Do,’ Gripes Beautician Accused Of Strangling Basset Hound

Selina Boulton, a 32-year-old beautician who police say tortured and strangled her ex-boyfriend’s dog after breaking into his house following an evening on the town, complained when charged with the animal abuse crimes that “animals have more rights than I do.”

She also told police in La Crosse, Wisconsin, that the helpless, 13-year-old basset hound, Jixer, was already four years past it expected life span anyway.

In point of fact, the life expectancy of a basset hound is generally somewhere between 10 and 14 years, though whether an animal — or for that matter a person — should already be dead according to statistical probability has no legal bearing on a person’s right to deprive another being of its life.

Boulton’s alleged lethal attack on the dog occurred on November 14, and in December of last year, she was charged with two misdemeanor offenses in connection with the basset hound’s death and the break-in at her ex-boyfriend’s home.

But on Friday, prosecutors filed new charges, upgrading the charge for the death of Jixer to mistreatment of an animal, which is a felony offense.

Boulton denied to interrogators that she broke into the home of her ex, whose name has not been made public. She said that when she entered the home, the aged basset hound attacked and bit her.

But according to police, Boulton was found in the home in tears, and with a blood-alcohol level that was later determined to be 0.10, which is above the legal limit for operating a motor vehicle in Wisconsin of 0.08.

When she was discovered by her ex-boyfriend inside of his home on the 700 block of North Losey Boulevard in La Crosse, a city of about 50,000 on Wisconsin’s western border with Minnesota, Boulton was sitting in the bedroom with the dead body of Jixer on the floor with its collar tightened around his neck. A frying pan was also found next to the deceased animal.

An autopsy on Jixer determined the the basset hound was strangled with its own dog collar, and also suffered broken ribs, a collapsed lung and a stab wound. The official cause of death was asphyxiation due to trauma to the dog’s chest.

Prosecutors in December charged that Boulton tortured the dog until it died.

The incident, they said, occurred following an argument that ensued when the ex-boyfriend refused to allow Selina Boulton into his home following an evening the former couple spent together.

The Selina Boulton case is one of two dog-abuse cases in the news this week. As reported by The Inquisitr, a puppy was thrown from a moving car in Florida earlier this year, but survived and is now ready for adoption.