Sean Owen and Gabe

It's part of being a pet owner.

Realizing that it's time to say goodbye to a beloved pet, accepting that it's time to put the suffering animal out of its misery is a gut-wrenching moment.

I had to put a 17-year-old pet down. I knew it was the right thing to do but that didn't make it any easier.

From that personal experience, I don't see how the argument can be made that Sean Owen loved his 13-year-old beagle, Gabe.


Sean Owen
(Photo/JS Online)

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Crocker Stephenson writes:

Sean Owen went into his backyard one fall afternoon and beat his dog to death.

He told police that he hadn't slept for days. He told them he wasn't thinking clearly. He told them he had drunk a few beers the night before.

He said his dog - a 13-year-old beagle named Gabe - was sick. Gabe had been his dog since he was in 10th grade. He loved Gabe, he said. He couldn't stand to see Gabe suffer.

He used an aluminum baseball bat on Gabe. Owen said he thought one solid smack on the head would knock Gabe out.

A neighbor who called Cudahy police said she saw Owen hit the animal maybe 10 times. She said it was the dog's yelps that brought her to her back door. Owen told police he didn't know how many blows it took. He said it was a lot more than he ever expected.

When police got to Owen's house that afternoon - it was about 1 p.m. Oct. 21 - Owen was standing over the animal, pulling a large plastic bag out of his pocket. He had beaten the animal so hard that its head was impacted in the ground.

Owen is full of excuses. He had a few beers, didn't sleep for days, wasn't thinking clearly.

Really? There have been times I had a few beers. I've been sleep-deprived. At times, my thinking has been less than clear. Whatever my condition, I would never have done what Owen did to his dog.

There was nothing merciful or loving about what Owen did to Gabe. NOTHING.

...On Thursday, Owen was before Milwaukee County Circuit Judge William Sosnay ready to be sentenced in a plea agreement that reduced his charge from mistreatment of animals causing death, a felony, to mistreatment of animals, which is a misdemeanor.

Under the original charge, Owen could have gone to jail for 3 1/2 years. Under the amended charge, the most he faced was nine months in the House of Correction and a $10,000 fine.

Assistant District Attorney Erin Karshen handed Sosnay a couple of pictures of Gabe and told the judge that the state was seeking probation.

Do you realize, Sosnay asked, that the longest term of probation the law allowed him to give Owen was one year?

Yes, she said.

When it was Owen's turn to speak, he told the judge Gabe had tumors and was so sick he could barely walk.

"I know I could have gone about this in a different way," he said.

...Why didn't you take him to veterinarian or to the Humane Society, Sosnay asked.

"I really hadn't thought about it," he said. "I didn't know what to do.

"I just feel awful about it."

How can one own a dog for 13 years and not know what to do when the dog is suffering?

Did Owen ever take Gabe to the vet?

Moreover, how could any person come to the conclusion that clubbing a dog to death was the right way to end its life?

..."What you did is quite frankly inexcusable," Sosnay said. "It is beyond comprehension."

And while Sosnay accepted the plea agreement, he sentenced Owen to one year's probation - but with the first six months to be served in the House of Correction. The beating was more than poor judgment, Sosnay said.

"It was a violent act."

I agree with Sosnay.

What Owen did was inexcusable, far worse than just a bad choice.

I think in addition to jail time, Owen is in desperate need of some counseling.

I don't think it's a leap to fear that Owen's violent solution to his dilemma with his dog could mean that when faced with another "I didn't know what to do" situation in his life, he would resort to extreme violence to solve it.