PASADENA, Calif., April 29 (UPI) -- A man has pleaded not guilty to charges he beat his California neighbor's dog with a hammer despite a security video purportedly showing him doing it.
The suspect, Young Song, 40, was charged Thursday in Pasadena Superior Court with one felony count of cruelty to an animal and one misdemeanor count of petty theft of a dog with a special allegation of personal use of a deadly weapon, said Deputy District Attorney Alison Matsumoto.
He's due back in court May 26 for a preliminary hearing. If tried and convicted, Song faces more than four years in state prison, the Long Beach Press-Telegram reported.
Steve McNall, head of the Pasadena Humane Society and Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Humane Society, said he had never witnessed brutality like that before, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.
"When our officers first viewed the videotape, one of our officers had tears in his eyes. He'd never seen anything like this before," Steve McNall said "In my 31 years at this animal shelter I've never seen anything like this."
Song allegedly climbed a fence in a Pasadena yard April 20 where a 16-month-old German shepherd puppy was untied but muzzled. Authorities allege Song shot the dog with a pellet gun, left and returned with a hammer, chasing and repeatedly beating the helpless animal senseless.
The shepherd's owner discovered a bloody area, a missing dog and that most events were captured by a newly installed security camera.
The surveillance video captured the beating but does not show what Song allegedly did with the dog, which is missing and presumed dead, the Times reported.
"We don't know the motive," said Jane Robison of the District Attorney's Office.
