A West Baltimore man was charged with animal cruelty Saturday after he shot his dog to death in his backyard, police said.
According to police, officers responding at 5:45 p.m. to a report of an armed person in the 2300 block of Arunah Ave. were greeted by Stanley Cohen Coleman, 35, who told them he had just put his dog down. Coleman told officers he used a shotgun to shoot his bull mastiff because it was fighting with his Siberian husky. Police said Coleman told them he resorted to the gun when the dogs would not stop fighting despite his pouring boiling water on them and hitting them with a board.
Police found the mastiff still alive, atop a pile of garbage and bleeding profusely from its hind quarter. Police found another dog on the property, an emaciated pit bull, dead in a crate. The mastiff later died and the husky was seized by animal control.
Coleman was charged with animal cruelty and recklessly discharging a firearm.