SAN ANTONIO – A 55-year-old man was sentenced Monday to 15 years in prison for fatally beating a puppy with a metal rod.
Gary Kennedy pleaded no contest to animal cruelty and was sentenced to the maximum time allowed by law because of the nature of the crime and previous convictions for numerous violent offenses.
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Kennedy was caught on surveillance video on July 3, 2014, beating a young Shar Pei with a metal rebar at a construction yard off Canton Street, Animal Care Services officials said.
Kennedy put the puppy in a trash bag and dragged it away, ACS officials said.
He was arrested two weeks later.
Animal Care Services field supervisor Audra Houghton said the conviction should set a benchmark for animal cruelty cases in Texas.
"We know there's an established link between animal cruelty and human violence that must inform our response to these cases," Houghton said. "This conviction supports addressing that progression of violence and stopping it before hurting pets turns into hurting people."
According to the National Link Coalition, a group that works to raise awareness of the connection between animal cruelty and human violence, 70 percent of convicted animal abusers have criminal records, including crimes of violence, property, drugs or disorderly behavior.