A man has been arrested after police said he trespassed into a Salt Lake City motel room and stabbed a dog to death.
The 45-year-old man told police he killed the dog in an act of self-defense on Saturday after it tried to bite him. But police said evidence at the scene did not match the man’s description of what happened.
The suspect told police he stabbed the dog once, then it jumped onto a bed in a motel room at the Gateway Inn at 819 W. North Temple, where it “bled out on the bed,” he said. According to a probable cause statement, there was “very little” blood on the bed, but there was blood in the dog’s crate and on the walls near it.
The dog’s owner told police that the suspect was trespassing in his room. The dog’s owner also said that the suspect had twice told him he was going to kill the dog.
The suspect removed the dog’s body from the room; it has not been found. Police did not say what kind of dog was killed.
Motel managers told police that the suspect had previously trespassed there and was not welcome on the property.
The suspect was booked into the Salt Lake County jail for investigation of aggravated animal cruelty and criminal trespass. His bail was set at $25,000.
