Man sentenced for attacking dog, owner with machete

TAUNTON, Mass. -- (WJAR) -- A Taunton man who stabbed a dog with a machete and injured its owner pleaded guilty to animal cruelty and assault charges, District Attorney Thomas M. Quinn III announced Thursday.

Authorities said 45-year-old Thomas Vargas was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in county jail, with six months to serve. A judge also ordered him to wear a GPS monitoring device for six months.

Police said they received multiple 911 calls about a man attacking a dog on Church Street on Sept. 18, 2017 around 10:30 p.m.

Officers said they arrived to find several people tending to the dog, which was bleeding. It had two large cuts, one on its neck and another near its spine.

“As the defendant was trying to strike the dog, he hit the dog owner in the leg,” Quinn said in a press release. “Two independent civilian witnesses said the attack was unprovoked by the dog and that the defendant was the sole aggressor. They also told police the dog, who has survived the attack, was leashed prior to the attack.”