Warren man charged with kicking puppy to death

Staff report

WARREN

A Chestnut Avenue man faces a felony charge under a new state law after being accused of kicking a puppy to death.

Maurice U. Brown, 23, was booked into the Trumbull County Jail on Wednesday morning, charged with prohibitions concerning companion animals.

A woman told police Brown kicked her 8-week-old puppy May 21 at her home on North Feederle Drive Southeast.

“... [H]e kicked it really hard, sending it into the street,” a Warren police officer said in a report. When police arrived, the puppy was not responsive.

The woman said Brown, her boyfriend’s brother, had come to the apartment uninvited, and she asked him to leave.

Brown called the woman names and threatened her. As Brown left, the puppy followed the woman out of the apartment, leading to the puppy’s being kicked, police said.

Brown is likely to be arraigned today in Warren Municipal Court.

The law, known as Goddard’s Law, prohibits a person from knowingly causing serious physical harm to a companion animal. This includes depriving a pet of food, water or shelter or inflicting long-term pain, according to Fox 8 television station in Cleveland. The law is named for former Fox 8 meteorologist Dick Goddard.

In March, Collin J. Macaulay, 19, of Gates Street in Cortland was sentenced to five years of probation, ordered to serve 250 hours of community service, have no pets for five years and attend a treatment program after being convicted of the same charge.

Macaulay was charged after Cortland police said he abused his pitbull puppy, which suffered face trauma, two fractured teeth and other injuries.

Macaulay was the first person in Trumbull County charged under the 2016 law.