Man stabbed puppy after it killed pet rabbit

JOELLE DALLY AND DAVID CLARKSON

Last updated 10:50 19/09/2014

SUPPLIED

REMANDED ON BAIL: Andrew Joseph Salisbury stabbed Falcon, an eight-month old staffy-lab cross, to death because the dog killed his pet rabbit.

Crime

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A man who stabbed a puppy to death after it killed his pet rabbit said he took ''a life for a life''.

Andrew Joseph Salisbury, 37, yesterday pleaded guilty to cruel ill-treatment of a dog over the incident at his Christchurch home. 

The dog's owner, Rebecca Blake, called the killing ''horrific'' and ''sick''.

She screamed and cried inside the house as Salisbury stabbed her ''beautiful'' 8-month-old staffy-lab, Falcon, in the driveway, using a 35-centimetre kitchen knife.

''My dog did kill the rabbit, but that's no excuse to stab my dog to death,'' she said. ''I want him to go to prison for what he's done.''

Blake went to the Mairehau house on June 6 to collect some stored belongings from Salisbury's partner.

She put Falcon in the backyard with another dog. The rabbit was in the hutch. Falcon got into the hutch, and the women then found the rabbit dead. 

Salisbury's partner phoned him and he came home in ''a rage'', Blake said. 

Finding Falcon tied up in the driveway, Salisbury went inside and got the knife out of a kitchen drawer. Salisbury stabbed the dog while it was yelping and hiding beneath the vehicle, then twice more after dragging the dog out, Sergeant Paul Scott told the Christchurch District Court. 

Two of the stabs were with such force that they created exit wounds. The fatal wounds were to the lung, chest, spine, and abdomen. 

Salisbury then kicked the dog twice in the head, Scott said. 

Falcon's yelps could be heard inside the house.

Blake told The Press she was too scared to stop Salisbury while he held the knife. 

''I just pretty much dropped to my knees and screamed the house down while he was doing it,'' she said.

''He was just in a rage, over the rabbit. I have to live with the fact everyday I did nothing to help my dog and it makes me sick."

Her puppy died in the driveway. 

After killing the dog, Salisbury cleaned up the area with a water hose. He told Blake's friend: "You know I had to do it. Life for a life'', Scott told the court. 

Blake said she still missed Falcon, who was ''mischief'' and ''a bit of a sook'', but beautiful. 

''I still think about him every day. I took him for walks everyday and he loved the beach. It's hard for me to even go down the beach now without him,'' she said. 

She cremated the dog's ashes and still had them at her West Coast home.

Salisbury had no previous convictions. Judge Stephen O'Driscoll remanded him on bail for sentencing in the Christchurch District Court on November 28. 

O'Driscoll ordered a pre-sentence report to cover Salisbury's suitability for home or community detention.

- The Press