Appellate Court Challenge of Goddard's Law Likely
“He shot a fully-grown dog with a scoped rifle, two times. I’m pretty sure that you know what you’re shooting when you do that.” – Prosecutor Jim Flaiz
The Chester Township man who shot a neighbor’s bulldog twice on another neighbor’s property in January will spend 60 days in jail for his actions.
Dennis Dudich, 68, of Bentbrook Drive, pleaded no contest in August to causing serious physical harm to a 3-year-old English bulldog named Zoey, who he shot with a scoped rifle on Jan. 21.
Zoey’s owner, Marcus Yagour, decided the following day to humanely euthanize his pet after it was determined one of the bullets had severed her spinal cord and she likely would never walk again.
On Monday, Geauga County Common Pleas Court Judge Forrest Burt sentenced Dudich for breaking the year-old Goddard’s Law, which makes knowingly causing serious physical harm to a companion animal a fifth-degree felony.
House Bill 60, which became law in September 2016, is named after Dick Goddard, a long-time WJW Channel 8 weatherman and animal activist.
Despite Dudich’s clean record, Burt said he was concerned about “contradictory positions” Dudich was taking.
“Either the defendant, with a scoped rifle, knew exactly what he was shooting at and shot at it, or . . . equally as bad, you shot something you didn’t know you were shooting,” Burt said. “That’s inexcusable.”
He added no hunter or person with a firearm would shoot at anything — “a cat, a skunk, a piece of newspaper or the neighbor’s bulldog” — without know what he or she was shooting.
“You just don’t do that,” said Burt. “It is inexcusable, clean record or not. And you can’t say, ‘Well, I’m sorry.’ The sorry should have occurred long before you picked up that gun.”
Burt added one of the things his father taught him when he learned to hunt was never shoot at something if you didn’t know what you’re shooting at.
“Yet, you say that’s exactly what you did,” he told Dudich. “You thought it was a cat. Well, that’s no excuse, and shooting it on somebody else’s property just aggravates it.”
In addition to the jail sentence, Burt fined Dudich $2,500 and ordered him to make restitution to Yagour in the amount of $1,768.72 to cover the veterinary bills and the cost of cremation.
He also placed Dudich on five years of community control and ordered him, among other things, not to possess any firearms or live in a household in which there are firearms.
Burt gave Dudich until Oct. 3 to report to the Geauga County Safety Center due to his health issues.
The delay also gives Dudich’s lawyer, Jay Schlachet, time to challenge Goddard’s Law in the appellate court.
“If you needlessly kill an animal, it’s a misdemeanor. If you cause serious physical harm to the companion animal, it’s a felony,” Schlachet told Burt, adding the language seems counterintuitive.
“But putting that aside, your honor . . . if I shoot somebody and that person is on life support, and they doctors say there is no chance of living we’re going to take this person off of life support, I get charged with aggravated murder . . . or whatever the case may be,” he noted. “So here we have a dog whose spinal cord was severed and the dog was euthanized. I’m not certain how that does not comport to killing the dog, which again is a misdemeanor.”
Schlachet described Dudich as a “pillar of the community” and called the events of Jan. 21 an “unfortunate set of circumstances.”
“He thought it was a feral cat. It makes no difference; he shot an animal and he knows it was wrong,” Schlachet said. “He was fully apologetic. He talks about that he thinks about this every single day and every single night. He meant not to cause any of the emotional problems that he’s caused to the family of the dog owner.”
Schlachet said Dudich would turn back the clock it he could and pleaded for a community control sanction in lieu of jail.
Dudich told Burt he was “truly sorry for everything.”
“I wish I could change it, but I can’t go back in time,” he said.
Yagour’s mother, Peggy, said a day doesn’t pass when she does not go onto her back patio and hear the gunshots and Zoey’s screams.
“I think to myself what did she do to anybody?” Peggy said. “She was a good dog, she didn’t hurt anybody, she wasn’t aggressive.”
She explained the events of Jan. 21 have been difficult on her family.
“It is a great loss to us and people who maybe don’t have animals don’t get it. I really am heartbroken and devastated that this had to come to this. I wish this day never had to come and I wish Jan. 21 never was here, ” she said. ‘But, on Jan. 22, we did choose to put her down, and to see my son at 22 years old and my husband, who is 56 years old, sobbing uncontrollably, and the heartbreak of losing our beloved Zoey, is something I don’t think our family will ever get over.”
Geauga County Prosecutor Jim Flaiz said the law provides that if someone inflicts serious physical harm on a companion animal, then that is a felony of the fifth degree.
“That’s exactly what the defendant did,” he told Burt.
Flaiz said Dudich has not taken responsibility for his actions, noting he lied to police and his story has changed throughout the case.
“He shot a fully-grown dog with a scoped rifle, two times,” said Flaiz. “I’m pretty sure that you know what you’re shooting when you do that.”
Even though Dudich does not have a prior criminal record, Flaiz said he maliciously killed Zoey and recommended the 60 days behind bars.
Amy Beichler, executive director of PAWS (Public Animal Welfare Society) for Ohio, said afterward she was disappointed with Dudich’s punishment.
“I’m disappointed that he only faces 60 days in jail — not prison, jail,” she said.
Beichler, who worked directly with Dick Goddard in passing Goddard’s Law, said she was confident the statute would be upheld on appeal.
“What we were looking for was a felony provision, even for first offense, egregious acts of intentional infliction of pain and suffering on an animal,” she explained. “Whether or not they die, it does not matter because in the state of Ohio you can take a gun and shoot an animal if you’re trying to euthanize it humanely.”
That is not what Dudich did, she added.
“He not only shot the dog once, but he shot it twice,” Beichler said. “He caused intentional infliction of torture, torment on this animal, and ultimately it was the family that chose to euthanize the dog. They did the humane thing.”
Beichler also noted in other cases prosecuted under Goddard’s Law defendants have received prison sentences of six to 12 months.
“So, I’m disappointed in the actual penalty here, when it comes to the judge’s thinking,” she said, adding while Flaiz recommended the lighter sentence, “I wish it would have been more.”
But Flaiz said a two-month jail sentence was appropriate given Dudich’s age, health and the severity of his crime, and he was pleased Burt agreed.
“I think the message should be this law’s out there, it’s being enforced and, if you do this to someone’s pet, you’re going to go behind bars,” he said.
