A Pennsylvania man will spend at least six months in prison for fatally stabbing a dog that he believed had put a "hex" on him while he was high on methamphetamine.
Twenty-nine-year-old Joseph Elliott was sentenced by a Lancaster County judge on Monday after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor count of animal cruelty for the stabbing at his Elizabethtown apartment on April 28.
Police say they arrived to find Elliot naked and the dead dog in the bathroom with lacerations on its body.
Humane officer for the Lancaster County Animal Coalition Jennifer Nield took the dog for a necropsy which revealed eight gashes from an edged object and bruises on the dog's body.
According to police, Elliott admitted to choking the dog.
Elliott will spend one to two years in prison because he was also sentenced Monday for briefly stealing a man's Volkswagen Jetta on April 4 and then giving police the owner's name as his own.
The six-to-23-month animal cruelty sentence will run concurrently to the one- to two-year car theft sentence.
