Village headman ‘killed dog’

SAKHON NAKHON: A village headman has been charged with animal cruelty amid claims he killed his neighbour’s pet dog.

Maneewan Boonlam, the head of Ban Nong Lad in Sakhon Nakhon’s Waritchaphum district, was summoned by police to hear the charges yesterday after officers received a complaint from his neighbour, Sunee Sanpanna, 53.

Ms Sunee has accused Mr Maneewan of beating and killing her five-year-old Siberian husky, which vanished from her home on Wednesday.

Waritchaphum police chief Niyom Putthasri said Ms Sunee had posted photos of her missing dog on social media sites, and told officers she later obtained a tip-off that the dog had been savagely beaten by Mr Maneewan before another villager found the badly injured animal and took it into their house.

Ms Sunee reportedly told police that the village headman later sent a group of men to the villager’s house to demand that the injured dog be handed over to them, but the house owner refused.

On Thursday, the men allegedly returned to the house when the owner was away and took the dog before killing it.

Pol Col Niyom said the headman was allegedly angry because he blamed the dog for the deaths of several ducks in the village.

The case came as two men in the neighbouring province of Mukdahan were sentenced to three months in jail and fined 10,000 baht each for killing a dog earlier this year.

Viddhaya Chaiyan, 29, and Saner Roopngarm, 48, were arrested on May 24 after police received complaints about a video clip posted on Mr Viddhaya’s Facebook page which showed the men killing a dog.

A police investigation later found Mr Viddhaya was the one who posted the video clip while his friend Mr Saner was responsible for killing the dog.

Police said the two men had accepted the court ruling and did not plan to lodge an appeal.

They were among the first to be charged under animal cruelty legislation passed last year.