WASHINGTON COUNTY, ARKANSAS, Ark. — Two Lincoln residents have been arrested after allegedly beating and stabbing their neighbor's dog.
Alane Suzette Maltese, 60, is accused of first-degree terroristic threatening, aggravated cruelty to a dog, cat, or equine, and theft of property.
Robert Andrew Maltese, 54, is accused of aggravated cruelty to a dog, cat, or equine, tampering with physical evidence, hindering apprehension or prosecution, and theft of property.
According to a preliminary report, deputies from the Washington County Sheriff's Office were dispatched to Lincoln for a disturbance on Feb. 16.
The caller stated that her neighbor beat her dog with a metal object and took it inside of their house, the report said. When law enforcement arrived, the caller said that she went out to her car when she heard yelling coming from the road. She said that she looked over and saw her 16-year-old, blind Pomeranian dog standing in the road.
The caller says that Alane ran from her yard towards the dog with a metal bar-like object in her hand and began cursing them and threatening to kill them and their dog, the report said.
The caller told deputies that Alane grabbed her dog and began beating it with the metal bar-like object before taking the dog into their house, according to the report. She stated that after the dog was brought into the neighbor's home by Alane, the suspect got into her vehicle and fled.
The report said deputies interviewed a neighbor who claims he saw Robert walk outside with the dog, stuff it into a trashcan and then stab it with a pitchfork.
The neighbor said he could hear the dog "whelping and moaning" while being struck by the pitchfork. Robert then allegedly took the dog out of the trashcan and stuffed it into a bucket, which he took into his house, according to the report.
Deputies spoke to Robert who said he had no idea what was going on and woke up to yelling between Alane and the caller, the report said. Robert claimed that Alane never hit the dog with any object and that the dog was safely chased from their property to the caller's.
Robert told deputies that the dog was not inside his house but refused a search of his home. Deputies spoke with Alane on the phone, and she allegedly refused to answer questions and told them that she was on her way to Colorado, the report said.
A search warrant was later issued and executed on the property. The dog was located still alive but severely injured and still in the bucket, which had an airtight lid on it. Deputies determined that the metal object used to beat the dog was the flat side of a machete, according to the report.
The machete and pitchfork were both collected as evidence. Robert was arrested on the scene, and the dog was returned to its owner and taken to a veterinarian, where it was later euthanized due to the severity of its injuries, which the report says includes a fractured skull, fractured ribs, fractured front leg, and lacerations to the bone of the leg.
Alane was later located and arrested just north of her address at a church.
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