Washington Supreme Court holds animal cruelty is a felony offense of domestic violence. The incident stems from an evening after defendant insisted on taking his girlfriend’s dog, a small Chihuahua and Dachshund combine, for a walk. The girlfriend testified that defendant had a history of disliking the canine and had previously threatened to kill both her and her canine. On that evening, two witnesses heard “a sound of great distress” and saw defendant making “brutal stabbing” motions toward the dog and then saw him kick the dog so hard that she flew into the air. Police officers responded and then transported the dog to a veterinary clinic where the canine subsequently died. One of the two witnesses had a panic attack at the scene and testified later that she continued to have panic assaults thereafter with flashbacks of the experience.
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