Neighbor Arrested in Death of Dog

Deputies arrested a Thousand Oaks man on suspicion of killing a neighbor’s beagle with a pellet gun because the dog’s constant barking annoyed him.

Gerald Thieman, 37, was booked into Ventura County Jail Thursday on accusations of felony cruelty to an animal. He remains jailed in lieu of $15,000 bail.

The 2-year-old beagle belonged to a family who lives across the street from Thieman.

“It’s rough,” said the dog’s owner, Perry Harding, 47. “It’s just like losing a member of the family. There’s anger, and there’s grief.”

Harding said two of his three sons were home alone Feb. 5 when they heard the dog yelping in the backyard. When they opened the door to let her inside, she ran under a bed and hid. “They said she wouldn’t come out--not even for a dog treat,” Harding said.

By the time Harding returned from work that afternoon, the dog had died.

“At the time, we had no idea what had really happened to her,” he said.

Later, Harding found what appeared to be a bullet hole near the dog’s chest, and a veterinarian confirmed the animal had been shot, apparently with a pellet gun.

The veterinarian took X-rays, which showed the dog had been shot at least three other times with lead pellets, which are fired from air-powered rifles or pistols.

The family suspected the dog had been injured earlier, but did not know she had ever been shot, authorities said.

Thieman was arrested Thursday morning after a weeklong investigation into the dog’s death, said Ventura County Sheriff’s Det. Kevin Vaden, who added that Thieman admitted that he had shot the dog before. He is scheduled to be arraigned in Ventura County Superior Court on Tuesday.

Although Thieman told deputies he had been bothered for several months by the dog’s barking, he never reported the nuisance to the city or animal control officers, Vaden said.

Harding said Thieman and another neighbor had once approached the family about the dog’s frequent barking.

“What she would do is get on her own scent trail and follow it, and bark, bark, bark, bark,” Harding said. “That’s what beagles do.”

Harding said he tried using special collars to control the barking, but those did not work. So the family decided to keep the dog inside while they were out of the house during the day.

Vaden said whether the family tried to control the dog’s barking is irrelevant.

“There are other ways to handle a problem dog,” he said.

Kathy Jenks, director of the Ventura County Department of Animal Regulations, said such cruelty toward an animal is never justified.

“I can understand, on the one hand, a person’s frustration with listening to a barking dog all day--it can really send a person over the edge,” Jenks said. “But there are legal, humane remedies to barking dogs that don’t have to include killing one with a pellet gun.”

Harding said his family will miss the puppy that would greet them at the door when they came home and keep their feet warm at the foot of their beds at night.

Harding said the neighborhood’s outpouring of support has helped. One family brought over a sympathy card and two stuffed toy beagles.