This alert is no longer active, but here for reference. Animals still need your help.

If told that you have too many animal companions living with you by your apartment complex management, you would do the normal thing, and just pick some out and kill…uh, what??? Unfortunately, this insane, unnecessary and incredibly brutal “solution” was recently carried out on one of three cats living with Dennis Engard of Newark, Ohio. We must act now to ensure that he pays for his atrocious crime against a defenseless cat.

Dennis Engard of Newark, Ohio lived with three companion cats, but was told by his apartment complex management that he could only have two. So, incomprehensibly, he managed to select one of his three cats and then violently strangled him to death, callously throwing his body in a dumpster.

As horrific as this is, it gets even worse. Amazingly, Engard is only being charged with misdemeanors for the brutal killing of his cat, even though Ohio law clearly allows for this horrific crime to be prosecuted as a felony under Goddard's Law.

Dennis Engard was arrested on Friday, February 15 after first lying about the crime to an animal control officer who was investigating. Pressed on the account by the animal control officer and shown a photo of his dead cat, Engard confessed that he'd been told by his apartment complex management that he was only allowed to have two cats and needed to get rid of one of his three cats to be in compliance. He then picked out one of his cats and strangled him to death and threw his body in the apartment complex dumpster.

Engard is only being charged with misdemeanors for this horrific crime, even though Ohio law allows for this crime to be punished as a felony under Goddard's Law. Goddard's Law, named for Dick Goddard, a Cleveland weatherman who advocated for strengthening the penalties against animal abusers for years, makes crimes committed against animal companions a felony. The law finally passed in 2016.

Please join us in asking Licking County Prosecutor, Bill Hayes, to take this crime seriously and to prosecute Engard under Goddard's Law with felony animal cruelty charges and to never allow him to be entrusted with animal companions again (including the two cats who currently live with him).

What You Can Do

This alert is no longer active, but here for reference. Animals still need your help.