NEWTOWN, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — A 40-year-old Bucks County man is accused of torturing and killing his dogs because he was upset after a conversation with his mother.
After visiting his mother in a nursing home on Jan. 18, George Ash returned to his home on Essex Lane in Newtown and, as he told police, started kicking his dogs, Shyla, a 9-year-old beagle-collie mix, and Blake, a 7-year-old beagle-lab mix, before stabbing them repeatedly and killing them.
“To say the defendant's actions were inhumane is an understatement. They were sadistic. He believed he was belittled by a family member who he had just recently visited, so he came home and, for hours, beat his two dogs,” said Bucks County District Attorney Jen Schorn. “This is a tragic, unimaginable case.”
Schorn says after stabbing the dogs, Ash cut himself in an attempt to take his own life before calling 911, but she describes those wounds as superficial.
Bucks County SPCA Chief Humane Officer Nikki Thompson says they are working with Newtown Township police and the Bucks County District Attorney's Office to gain justice for Shyla and Blake — killed, as Thompson said, “tragically and horrifically by someone who they knew well.”
Ash is charged with two felony counts of aggravated cruelty to animals and could face a maximum of 18 years in prison.