January 25, 2006

By Bryan Johnson


COVINGTON - A 40-year-old Covington man now faces charges of first-degree animal cruelty for allegedly beating and stabbing his own dog with a golf club.

John McCafferty is being held with bail set at $25,000. He faces up to a year in jail.

Prosecutors say the dog, Oulli, was severely beaten Sunday morning, apparently after growling at McCafferty. Other family members described the dog as "a talker, who growls just to say 'Hello'".

Oulli howled at the camera Wednesday. He appears to be a little nervous around men.

Pictures taken Sunday show gashes on the black lab's face and neck and a leg wound. Plus, doctors say, the dog had body soreness and possibly some internal injuries.

John McCafferty's wife, Angie, says he is normally a quiet guy, unless he drinks.

She doesn't drink and says her husband bought two 1.5 liter bottles of white zinfandel Saturday.

She found one of those bottles empty in the garage.

She believes her husband walked into the house drunk. She says Oulli probably growled, and her husband probably reacted.

This is what she thinks happened: "He started hitting him with his hand, probably punching him. And he got bitten and that enraged him and it probably went from there."



The dog apparently ran to his kennel. His wife says her husband then appears to have pounded on the kennel with a golf club until the club broke.

Police say McCafferty then stabbed the dog with the broken club.

Angie says the dog might have died, but her 21-year-old daughter Heidi threw herself over the dog yelling "Daddy, stop".

Four days after the beating, Oulli is getting better and showing more of his old self every day.

Angie plans to file for divorce. She says it's not just the dog -- there have been other problems. But then she told KOMO 4 News: "I just can't do it anymore, doing that to a dog is not very far away from doing it to a person."

McCafferty is scheduled to enter a plea to animal cruelty charges on Feb. 7.

http://www.komotv.com/news/printstory.asp?id=41504

Quoted: He needs to be beat.

I volunteer to get all liquored up and play his back 9.

Put me in charge for a while. I know exactly what to do.

Road Trip?