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A man in Webster County faces charges after court records said he was accused of shooting six puppies in the head with a pellet rifle and throwing them over a hill after the dogs attacked his neighbor’s chickens.
Jeremy Todd Smallwood, 40, of Cowen is charged with six counts of animal cruelty after the incident was reported Wednesday on Brewster Ridge Road in Cowen, according to a criminal complaint filed in Webster County Magistrate Court.
A Webster County deputy responded to the scene and spoke to residents who said their neighbor’s dogs had killed and maimed their chickens. The complaint said the deputy saw a dead chicken and multiple others with chunks of flesh and feathers missing.
The residents said Smallwood had come to their home while the attack was happening, and he said he was going to take the dogs and kill them.
A deputy stopped a truck matching the description of the suspect’s vehicle, and the suspect advised that he had killed the dogs, the complaint said.
The deputy and a state trooper went in search of the dogs and found six dogs, all about 3 or 4 months old, yelling and whimpering and had shot wounds to the head.
Four of the dogs were taken to the Webster County animal shelter to be euthanized. The other two were taken to the Nicholas County animal hospital in hopes of treatment. One of those dogs died, and the other was in critical condition.
Smallwood is currently being held at Central Regional Jail on a $100,000 cash only bond.