PORTLAND — A Portland man who shot a neighbor’s dog because the animal was chasing nutria he cared for was sentenced to 15 days in jail.
The Oregonian reports Wednesday that 60-year-old Michael Robert Hutchinson seemed nervous in Multnomah County Circuit Court as he pleaded no contest to felony first-degree aggravated animal abuse and misdemeanor possession of a loaded firearm in public.
The newspaper reports Hutchison lovingly cared for the nutria, a type of rodent that lived near his trailer. He’d feed them bread and scraps of food regularly.
But when in January he saw his neighbor’s 14-pound terrier mix dog chase after one of the semiaquatic rodents, he shot it with a pellet gun. The dog, named Marley, was one year old.
Hutchinson told the judge on Tuesday he was sorry he killed the dog.