A 75-year-old Goshen County man told investigators that after shooting a pair of Rottweilers near his property, he dumped them in the North Platte River because he didn’t have time to “shoot, shovel and shut up.”
Another man accused of helping dispose of the dogs in the river told investigators they were “too lazy” to bury them.
David Cronk made his first court appearance Friday on two charges each of felony animal cruelty and misdemeanor unlawful disposal of a dead animal so as to pollute.
Cronk said he shot the dogs once each on May 29 with a powerful .25-06 rifle because he felt his and a neighbor’s livestock may be threatened by the large dogs, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed in his case by Goshen County Sheriff’s Deputy Chris Green.
Four days later, Green caught up with Cronk at his home just outside Torrington, he wrote.
“As I was walking up his driveway, I observed him standing by a vehicle talking with someone else,” the affidavit says. “Cronk said something to the effect of, I was wondering when someone would show up and talk to me.”
After a brief pause, Green wrote that he asked, “You did it?”
“Cronk shook his head yes and waved at me to follow him so he could show me his fence lines, the livestock, and tell me what happened,” the affidavit says.
He told the deputy that he had been having chronic problems with stray dogs on and around his property and that he doesn’t call the sheriff’s office anymore to report them.
“Cronk said he didn’t know how it would turn out after killing the dogs, and he didn’t have time to ‘shoot, shovel and shut up,’ so he called his neighbor, Anthonie Conner, to help,” Green wrote.
With the help of his younger friend, they “put both the dogs into the river, and (Cronk) said he hoped they would float away, but there was not enough water,” the affidavit adds.
Cronk also said that he shot the second dog when it appeared it to be coming after him.
Cronk Had Help
Green started his investigation on May 29 when someone reported finding the two dead Rottweilers in the river.
“When I walked towards the river, I observed two black-and-rust-colored dogs lying next to each other floating in the North Platte River,” he wrote in his affidavit.
After they were pulled from the river, Green wrote that he recognized their breed as Rottweilers and that there was still blood coming out of their bodies.
He also “observed large bullet wounds approximately the size of a silver dollar, one in each dog,” the affidavit says. “One was in the side of the neck and one was in the chest. It appeared they were shot with a large caliber gun.”
For his part, Conner, 31, admitted to investigators that he helped dump the dogs in the river because he and Cronk “were too lazy to put them in the back of his truck and go dig a hole,” the affidavit says.
Conner said he got a call from Cronk early that morning saying there were two Rottweilers outside Cronk’s fenceline and that they were “going to get his sheep,” Green wrote.
So, Conner got his .22-caliber rifle and was going out to help Cronk when he heard two loud gunshots.
“Conner initially thought they were warning shots, until he went down to the river and discovered (Cronk) shot both dogs,” according to the affidavit.
They decided to keep it quiet.
“Conner told me that in the heat of the moment he really wasn’t thinking about it when they tossed them into the river,” Green wrote. “Conner hoped the dogs floated away and their problem would disappear.”
He also told investigators that he didn’t blame Cronk for shooting the dogs because stray dogs are a recurring problem in the area.
Accessory Could Get More Time Than The Shooter
For the owners of the dogs, their deaths and the way they were disposed of has been more than upsetting.
Angelica Garcia told Cowboy State Daily shortly after they were found that the Rottweilers owned by her parents had gotten loose from their home. Hours later they were found dead by a woman and her son who were walking by a popular fishing spot on the river.
Garcia said the discovery of the two dogs, named Django and Hera, left her stunned.
"The top of Django's head was gone and Hera's neck and chest were gone," Garcia said. "They were family dogs. I trusted them around my kids.”
The family's frustration in the aftermath of the shooting led to an online petition that accused authorities of not doing enough to investigate the deaths.
"Whoever did this brutally murdered these dogs, took their collars and drug them off and dumped their bodies in the river," the petition reads.
State law does permit dogs to be killed if they are running at livestock and the livestock has been injured or is threatened with injury. The law also shields the person who kills the dog from liability if the danger or damage can be shown.
In this case, Deputy Green wrote in his affidavit he doesn’t believe those thresholds were met.
“Based on my investigation, it does not appear Cronk, when he shot each dog, was either acting appropriately in defending livestock or engaged in appropriate self-defense,” he wrote in the affidavit.
For his alleged part in disposing of the dogs, Conner has been charged with a felony accessory after the fact to illegally shooting the Rottweilers and two misdemeanor charges of unlawful disposal of a dead animal so as to pollute.
The felony accessory charge carries potential penalties of up to three years in prison, a fine of not more than $3,000, or both.
Cronk’s felony cruelty to animals charges each can get him up to two years in prison, a fine of not more than $5,000, or both.
Each unlawful disposal charge both men face is punishable by up to six months in jail, a fine between $50 and $200, or both.
Conner also had his first appearance in Goshen County Circuit Court on Friday, and both men have preliminary hearings set for July 14, where it will be determined if there’s enough evidence to move forward with their felony charges.
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
