Dog Strangled, Severely Beaten With Shovel Had To be Euthanized, New York Man Arrested
A veterinarian had to euthanize a dog after she was strangled and severely beaten with a shovel by her alleged owner, Michael Gallagher, 56, of Levittown, New York, who was arrested on animal cruelty charges, according to CBS New York.
At around 2:45 p.m. on Friday, December 23, Michael was arrested when a neighbor, who asked to remain anonymous, called 911 after seeing him strangling and suffocating his Shepherd-mix dog named Bella, using a zip-tie before placing the dog inside of a bag and beating her with a shovel.
When the neighbor confronted Michael, she said: “I screamed at him to stop and said, ‘What are you doing? What are you doing?”
“And he said the dog was sick, and he wanted to put it out of its misery. And I called him a couple of things.”
Afterward, Michael fled the scene on foot.
“You couldn’t even see the tie around its neck because it was that embedded,” said the neighbor, who added that Gallagher did not show any emotion during the confrontation.
“No affect, no affect at all,” the neighbor added.
Long Island plumber drunkenly beat his dog with a shovel before vet put her down https://t.co/fnzDdRj31A pic.twitter.com/MRdifh7Iu6
— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) December 24, 2016
The neighbor reportedly opened the bag, setting the dog free and cut the zip-tie that was wrapped around Bella’s neck before the Nassau County Police arrived at the scene.
The dog was later transported to Levittown Animal Hospital, where she had to be euthanized due to the severity of her injuries after being strangled and beaten with a shovel.
At around 10:30 p.m., Michael – who works as a plumber for New York City schools and the Metropolitan Opera House – was arrested at 7-Eleven store.
Gary Rogers, who is with the Nassau County SPCA, said: “We just can’t figure out why somebody would do that. Violent animal cruelty like that is a precursor to other violent crime.”
Rogers added, “This is a family member that you’ve been living with for 11.5 years in your house, and then you decide to put a wire tie around its neck, a zip tie, a bag over its head and hit it with a shovel?”
“We can’t figure out what’s going on there.”
Eleven years ago, the Gallagher family adopted Bella from the North Shore Animal League.
The suspect’s 26-year-old daughter, Kerry Gallagher, said: “We’re still in total shock. We don’t even know what to do. We don’t want him coming back.”
She went on to say that her ex-boyfriend saw the aftermath of the attack and stated that “he saw my mom crying on the floor. He saw the bag and saw it was moving. He opened it and saw she had a skull fracture.”
It was reported that Michael had been an alcohol abuser for decades before quitting six months ago. His daughter stated that “he was an outpatient and he was doing really well.”
“He would come home and talk. He was happy I was talking to him again. I’m 26 — that’s the first time I remember him being sober.”
But when one of their dogs, Austin, died of liver cancer on December 5, Kelly believes her father started drinking again.
Kelly said her father loved their dogs and believes Michael “either just blacked out or something snapped in his head. He’s never been violent with the dogs ever before. He loves animals.”
While Michael was being interviewed by Nassau County police, Kelly was able to speak to him and she said he told her that “he didn’t do it and has no recollection of doing it. I was showing him pictures of my dog on the vet table. He was saying ‘What is that, who is that? Is that Bella?'”
Michael made an initial court appearance Saturday, but it was not immediately made clear who will be representing him in the case.
[Featured Image By UrbanCow/iStock]
