A woman in Western Pennsylvania has been of convicted of stealing a neighbor’s dog and having it killed.
On Friday, a jury in Allegheny county convicted 58-year-old Gisele Paris of Pittsburgh in court..
Prosecutors said Paris stole the dog, Thor, a Siberian husky on Thanksgiving of 2013 because she believed that the dog was neglected, despite assurances to the contrary by an humane society officer.
Thor’s owner, who was diagnosed with with stage 3 cancer of the esophagus, says the dog had health problems but was not in any pain.
Paris took the dog to a veterinarian and had it euthanized in February, police said. Prosecutors, however, claim the dog was euthanized in order to “destroy the evidence” of her crimes.
Defense attorney argued that, although his client may have been misguided, there was no malicious intent in her actions.
Despite the fact that prosecutors said Paris stole the dog from a yard, she testified that she found the dog eating garbage and alone.
In trial on Monday, Paris told the jury that “the dog was “was very tired and thirsty.”
She took Thor home, cleaned and dressed up a wound before taking him to the Animal Rescue League. After no one claimed the dog, she took the dog into her home.
Prosecuting attorneys said Paris created a tragic loss for a cancer-stricken man, but she countered with the claim that the dog wasn’t well cared for in the man’s home.
She said that she decided the dog needed to be euthanized because he was so sick.
“I sat down on the floor next to him and put his head in my lap, and Dr. Jamie gave him an injection, and then we stayed there a while until his heart stopped,” she said.
Prosecutors claimed that while Boehler, faced with terminal cancer, was determined to locate the dog.
Paris did not reveal to Boehler where she buried the dog’s remains until the trial.
“I took him up to some property my family has in Armstrong County and buried him along the river under a willow tree where all of our family pets are buried,” Paris testified.
The trial’s closing arguments are scheduled for Tuesday morning.
Gisele Paris is charged with theft, receiving stolen property, and cruelty to an animal.
Image: NBC Philadelphia
