{"id":66772,"date":"2019-08-16T21:03:21","date_gmt":"2019-08-17T03:03:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bayfield-man-pleads-guilty-to-shooting-killing-neighbors-dog\/"},"modified":"2019-08-17T03:03:21","modified_gmt":"2019-08-17T03:03:21","slug":"bayfield-man-pleads-guilty-to-shooting-killing-neighbors-dog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bayfield-man-pleads-guilty-to-shooting-killing-neighbors-dog\/","title":{"rendered":"Bayfield man pleads guilty to shooting, killing neighbor\u2019s dog"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Bailey,
Bailey, a 5-year-old Great Dane, died in May after losing 2\u00bd liters of blood in an operation to remove a pellet from her body. Law enforcement accused Wesley Zufelt, 78, of firing the pellet. Zufelt pleaded guilty this week.<\/span>Courtesy of Brad Loutherback<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A Bayfield man pleaded guilty this week to shooting a Great Dane with an air-powered pellet gun, inflicting a wound that killed the animal earlier this year, court documents show.<\/p>\n

Wesley Zufelt, 78, was sentenced to one year unsupervised probation Tuesday after admitting to La Plata County Court Judge Dondi Osborne that he killed his neighbors\u2019 dog, Bailey, a 5-year-old Great Dane. The court fined Zufelt $306.50 and ordered him to pay restitution to the dog\u2019s owners, Jennifer and Brad Loutherback, although the exact amount has not yet been calculated by the District Attorney\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

The Bayfield Marshal\u2019s Office accused Zufelt of cruelty to animals, a Class 1 misdemeanor with penalties ranging from six to 18 months in jail, $500 to $5,000 in fines or both. Osborne ordered Zufelt to pay a $500 misdemeanor fine but suspended the fee in light of forthcoming restitution costs.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors also charged Zufelt with prohibited and reckless use of a firearm but dismissed the count as part of a plea agreement.<\/p>\n

Law enforcement said Zufelt shot Bailey, the Great Dane<\/a>, in May. Brad Loutherback said at the time that Bailey got a case of the \u201czoomies\u201d \u2013 when she \u201cruns like a horse\u201d \u2013 and wandered into Zufelt\u2019s yard and onto his porch.<\/p>\n

\"Cruelty
Cruelty to animals is a Class 1 misdemeanor in Colorado punishable by six to 18 months in jail, $500 to $5,000 in fines or both. La Plata County Court Judge Dondi Osborne assessed Wesley Zufelt a $500 fine but suspended the fee in recognition that Zufelt will also have to pay restitution to the family.<\/span>Courtesy of Brad Loutherback<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Zufelt saw the dog and grabbed a pellet gun sitting next to a couch in his north Bayfield home, according to Bayfield Marshal Joseph McIntyre.<\/p>\n

Zufelt walked to a sliding glass window in the back of his house, opened it and aimed the gun at the dog, McIntyre said. He pointed the gun toward a road and the front yard where two girls were playing, McIntyre said. Had he missed, the shot could have traveled across the road.<\/p>\n

The Loutherbacks reported hearing Bailey yelp and seeing her limp as she walked across Tamarack Drive to their North Palo Verde Drive property. The pellet nicked Bailey\u2019s aorta.<\/p>\n

Brad Loutherback said veterinarians at Bayfield Animal Hospital performed surgery for 3\u00bd hours, and by early evening \u2013 with five stitches on her heart \u2013 Bailey was in stable condition.<\/p>\n

But she had lost 2\u00bd liters of blood in the operation, Loutherback said, and veterinarians told him the next 24 hours were critical. Bailey died about midnight with a Bayfield Animal Hospital employee by her side, Loutherback said.<\/p>\n

Brad Loutherback could not immediately be reached for comment.<\/p>\n

bhauff@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bailey, a 5-year-old Great Dane, was running loose<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66773,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[382,731,168,28,2822,29,4259],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-66772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-animal","tag-bayfield","tag-crime","tag-headlines","tag-justice-and-rights","tag-newsletter","tag-newsletter-sign-up"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66772"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=66772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}