A hunter has been charged for killing and skinning a Connecticut family’s pet dogs after mistaking the pair of German Shepherds for coyotes.
Michael Konschak, of Carmel, N.Y., said he was ashamed of his actions during an appearance in Danbury Superior Court on Wednesday. The hearing drew dozens of people, among them activists and animal rights advocates.
“Please know that it was never my intent that morning to harm the victims’ pets,” he said.
Konschak struck the two canines with a crossbow after they escaped a Ridgefield family’s yard on November 21, police said in an arrest warrant affidavit. The owners believe their 10-year-old dogs — a girl named Lieben and a boy named Cimo — managed to wriggle through the fence because it had been recently damaged, likely by a bear.
Konschak said he was hunting deer at a property nearby when he spotted the dogs and shot them, thinking they were coyotes. He also skinned the animals for their pelts, according to his attorney, Brian Romano, who noted that the hunting and trapping of coyotes is legal in Connecticut.
Erin Caviola said she and her family searched for weeks for the dogs and even posted flyers after they went missing. She added that the family pets had their heads removed, which still remain missing.
“We live with the emotional pain as we think about what they felt in their final moments lying beside each other dying,” she said in her victim impact statement. “They loved each other so much, to picture that is heartbreaking.”
Police with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection arrested Konschak last month on charges including tampering with evidence, forgery, interfering with a law enforcement officer and hunting-related violations. Activists have also demanded that animal cruelty charges be brought against the 61-year-old hunter.