Animal Control officers served the dog’s owner, 72-year-old Kenneth Frank, and his roommate, 51-year-old Robert Callahan, with a notice to appear on a charge of animal cruelty for killing Frank’s 11-year-old Chihuahua.........
Frank said that Callahan put a plastic bag over the Chihuahua’s head for thirty minutes. Frank said although he was home, he did not witness the dog being suffocated.
When he heard the dog whimpering, he became concerned and went to check on the dog. The animal was unresponsive but still alive.
Frank then decided to finish the job himself, covering the dog's mouth with duct tape and placing a pillow over its head until it died, the spokeswoman said...............
Pinellas County animal investigators surrounded the 56th Avenue North home of Kenneth Frank on Tuesday after a tip led them to a shallow grave in the backyard.
Inside the grave was the body of his dog, Pee Pee, a Chihuahua, who Frank admits he suffocated.
"He looked at me and said, 'Please daddy, please let me go,'" Frank said about the elderly dog while standing outside his front door and crying.
Frank decided to euthanize the dog after talking with his roommate, Bob Callahan, about what to do with the ailing pet. Frank said Callahan suggested he use a plastic bag to suffocate the dog.
Callahan's story about what happened differs.
"He is a liar," Callahan said of Frank. "He woke me up at 1 a.m. And I looked at Pee Pee and I said, 'Pee Pee is about to die.' And Ken said, 'Could you please take him into your room and put him to sleep. I don't care how you do it, put a pillow over his head, but put him to sleep.'"
Callahan said that veterinarians had already told Frank that the dog's liver and kidneys were failing.
"Ken asked me to put the dog to sleep and I thought the most humane way to do it was to just put a plastic bag over his head," Callahan said. "I thought he was just going to fall asleep breathing his own CO2."
But that didn't happen.
"Inside a minute he started flapping his paws. I took the plastic bag off," Callahan said. "I'm not an animal killer. I can't do that."
Callahan, who owns two dogs, said: "I'm not a Dr. Kevorkian, but I can't stand seeing a dog suffer."
Instead, Frank, 72, admitted he finished the job by putting duct tape around the dog's mouth and a pillow over his head.
Callahan said that there's a 24-hour emergency veterinarian clinic about 20 blocks away from the house, and that he buried the dog for Frank in the backyard.
"It was his dog. What could I do?" said Callahan, 50, who knows he may face a hefty fine or worse. "I was wrong for doing it. I should never have done that. I admit my guilt."
Callahan said Frank has since evicted him.
The Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney's Office is waiting for paperwork on the case before deciding whether to file formal charges.