Although law allows family to consume pet, circumstances justified felony arrest, sheriff says
There’s no law against making a meal out of a pet dog or cat in a number of states, including New Mexico.
But that didn’t prevent sheriff’s officers in Torrance County from filing a felony charge of extreme animal cruelty against Salvador Martinez, after he allegedly stabbed his girlfriend’s dachshund-mix dog in the heart and marinated some of the meat in preparation for cooking it, according to KOAT and KSAT.
“It’s the manner that it was done, and the emotional stress it put on the rest of the family, that led us to arrest him and charge him with animal cruelty,” Sheriff Heath White told KSAT.
Martinez reportedly admitted to sheriff’s officers that he killed the dog and said he did so because the family had no other food. His girlfriend, Mandy Malone, disagreed. She said he had talked about a plan to barbecue her pet, but she had thought it was a joke.
The defendant couldn’t be reached for comment after he was charged, KSAT said.
