EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — Police arrested an East Providence man last month after a hiker found his dog severely injured and unable to move, according to a spokesperson for the mayor’s office.
Alan Jesse Dwyer, 43, is facing several animal cruelty charges, four of which are felonies.
The spokesperson said the hiker was walking through the Turner Reservoir Loop Trail in early December when he heard the dog crying. When police arrived on scene, they found the female Treeing Walker Coonhound had been shot in the head.
Police brought the dog to an emergency vet clinic where she succumbed to her injuries.
The spokesperson said the dog had an unregistered microchip, which is how they were able to locate her owner.
Dwyer was arrested the next day on a domestic simple assault charge, according to the spokesperson. In addition, he was charged with malicious injury to or killing of animals, unnecessary cruelty resulting in death, abandonment of infirm animals, abandonment of animals resulting in death, and overwork, mistreatment or failure to feed animals resulting in death.
It’s unclear at this time whether Dwyer shot the dog in the head, though the spokesperson did confirm that all of his guns were removed from his home at the time of his arrest.