A Worland man who shot his own dog several times is guilty of animal cruelty.
Donald “Dudley” Wright in January shot his own dog — a border collie mix pup named Axel — about six times at his home north of Worland, according to court documents.
Axel’s road to recovery was long, and he still has gut issues for which he takes medication, his new owner Sabrina McClain told Cowboy State Daily on Friday following Wright’s Tuesday conviction.
But he’s walking well despite being shot in the leg, shoulder, jaw and chest. A metal plate has been removed from his jaw and he can now chew normal toys, McClain added.
The dog is about a year old, she related from court testimony.
After a two-day trial, the jury in Washakie County District Court convicted Wright on one count of cruelty to animals (punishable by up to two years in prison and fines of up to $5,000), and a second charge of using a gun while committing a felony (punishable by up to 10 years in prison and $10,000 in fines).
The jury also convicted Wright on two misdemeanors, both breach of peace charges punishable by up to six months in jail and $750 in fines.
Wright had testified in his own defense, emphasizing that Axel was his own dog and that the pup was “untrainable,” McClain recalled from the last day of trial.
Washakie County Attorney Tony Barton had originally filed stalking and property destruction charges against Wright as well, but the prosecutor did not take those to trial, Wright’s court file indicates.
Barton did not immediately respond to a Friday voicemail request for comment.
Wright could not be reached via the phone number listed in his court file. His attorney, H. Richard Hopkinson, did not immediately respond to a voicemail request for comment at his business line.
Wright’s sentencing hearing has not yet been set.
Wyoming Department of Corrections personnel must compile a report on his life, crime and character for District Court Judge Bobbi Overfield before Wright can be sentenced, according to a court order.
Court Docs Say …
The Washakie County Sheriff’s Office received a call of a disturbance Jan. 14 from a home on Highway 20 North near Worland involving Wright, says an evidentiary affidavit in the case.
McClain called in the disturbance, since she’d been on the phone with a female friend who was having issues with Wright that morning.
McClain told sheriff’s personnel that Wright had shot a dog the day before while drunk, and that the dog was being treated at Flying A Animal Health in Ten Sleep.
But Wright didn’t know the dog was at the vet’s office, and he was outside the home next door searching for it, armed with a handgun and yelling at two of the women in the house next door, McClain reported at the time.
Putting It Down
Washakie County Sheriff’s Deputy Jeffrey Neal, Washakie County Sheriff Austin Brookwell and Wyoming Highway Patrol agents arrived on scene.
Wright emerged from his home and sat on his front porch as Brookwell spoke with the people staying at the home, the document says.
At first Wright wouldn’t speak to Neal except from 30 feet away, the deputy wrote. He identified himself by name and as the homeowner.
Wright said he owned a dog that he’d chosen to put down. It was a border collie/kelpie mix and had killed his chickens, he said.
The dog tore up the inside of Wright’s home and destroyed his medication the night of Jan. 13, Wright told law enforcement personnel, according to the affidavit.
At about 9 p.m. on Jan. 13 he’d had enough and decided to shoot the dog with a 9 mm handgun in his own backyard to put it down, he said.
Though he hit the dog, it ran and hid under the porch; so he walked to his ex-girlfriend’s home and shot through the porch floor at the dog “multiple times,” the affidavit says.
Wright lost sight of the dog and went back home, Neal related.
‘Hope He Bleeds Out’
The morning of Jan. 14, Wright went back to his ex-girlfriend’s home to put the dog “out of its misery,” the affidavit says. He texted the women who live at that home and yelled at them, demanding the dog, Neal wrote.
“He’s gone. He ate all my heart meds, and I hope he bleeds out,” Wright reportedly texted his ex-girlfriend.
One of the women later told a friend that Wright was outside armed and acting hostile.
What he didn’t know is that his ex-girlfriend’s stepdaughter had found the dog under the porch in the middle of the night prior and had taken it to the vet, says the document.
Wright later told Neal that though he was walking around his ex-girlfriend’s home with a gun, he didn’t point the gun at the women who live there. He just wanted the dog back so he could finish putting it down and to “put it out of its misery, to put it out of my misery.”
Neal wrote that Wright had other options and could have given Axel to his ex-stepdaughter, who considers him “partly her dog;” or could have taken him to a vet to have him “humanely euthanized.”
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
