Killing of dog spurs ire

BENJAMIN — A Utah County woman is brokenhearted and animal care groups are outraged over what they say was an unprovoked shooting death of a family dog.

Kay Sherman Mortensen of Payson is charged with discharging a firearm in close proximity of a house in connection with a May 13 incident in unincorporated Utah County. Prosecutors also are "seriously considering" adding a animal cruelty charge, said Matthew Lloyd, deputy county attorney.

Cindy Beddoes believes Mortensen intentionally shot and killed her 4-year-old Great Dane, Sis, as retaliation for a run-in a week earlier in which two of her dogs barked at the man.

Beddoes said Mortensen at that time threatened to kill the dogs and in the days that followed regularly carried a gun when he visited his property near the Beddoes' Benjamin home.

"He had been out here every single day (after that), just waiting," she said.

The dogs were on Beddoes' property on both occasions, she said. On May 13, the Great Dane was in Beddoes' yard when the shot was fired in the direction of the house, she said.

Beddoes said the dog was walking toward Mortensen when the call of her owners caused her to stop and turn her head.

"And that's when he shot her," she said.

Beddoes' husband and adult son both witnessed the shooting, she said.

"I walked out to the back door, I saw (the dog) and I thought, 'Oh, thank God he missed,' " Beddoes said. "Then I heard my husband say, 'You shot her in the (expletive) heart.' Then I saw the blood and the mark of the bullet."

The dog immediately was taken to a Payson veterinarian but died before she could be treated.

John Paul Fox, chief investigator for the Humane Society of Utah, says prosecutors should be able to file a class A misdemeanor charge of aggravated cruelty to animals if Beddoes' description of the events is accurate.

Messages left Wednesday and Thursday for Mortensen and his attorney, M. James Brady, were not returned.

"Under state law, anyone who injures or kills an animal either intentionally, knowingly or recklessly can be taken to court under the cruelty law," Fox said.

The exception, he said, is if the dog is attacking, chasing or threatening a person, another domestic animal or an animal of commercial value.