Michael Henley
Michael Henley will be the first name to appear on the Tennessee Animal Abuse Registry after he pled guilty to felony animal cruelty. Henley, 33, beat his dog to death with his shoe on October 7th, 2014.
Tennesssee is first in the nation to launch a statewide animal abuse registry. Henley’s name and photo will appear as the first person to be on the registry. He is not listed on the website of today.
Henley was charged with aggravated animal cruelty after police were called to his home when his roommate told them Henley was beating his dog, Cocoa, with his shoe. He also stated Henley was drinking.
When police arrived, they found blood splattered on the wall. The deceased dog was discovered in a trash can.
Henley told the police his dog wouldn’t obey his command to come inside. When he reached to put Cocoa inside, the dog bit him on his right hand which was consistent with a bite mark on that hand according to the police.
Henley stated “he was not going to feed and care for a dog that did not obey so he decided to put the dog down and kill it. Henley stated he did not have a phone so he could not call anyone, and he did not know a better way to kill the dog than to beat it to death with the shoe.”
After a person is convicted of felony animal abuse, the law states the court clerk then has 60 days to send that information to the TBI (Tennessee Bureau of Investigation).
Henley’s punishment could have gotten him up to six years in prison and fined $3,000. However, a judge sentenced him to two years of unsupervised probation and 12 months of wearing an alcohol monitoring device. He must sign up for the animal abuse registry within 14 days of being found guilty of felony animal abuse.
McKamey Animal Center’s Executive Director, James McAloon said “This was heinous.” “We have zero tolerance of animal abuse in the City of Chattanooga,” McAloon said. “We’re going to pursue those cases. We’re going to present them for prosecution. Our prosecuting attorney feels the same way and does prosecute these cases.”
According to McAloon, many animal abusers are charged with or plead down to a misdemeanor which makes them exempt from appearing on the new state registry.
“We see some pretty awful animal abuse cases that end up with just a misdemeanor,” said McAloon. “That’s more common than you would think.”
“In the future, we want to make sure that these people that are convicted of animal abuse don’t get to keep animals or have animals during the period of their probation,” McAloon said.
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This is how he punishes his dog by killing her because she refused to come when told. She knew he was an idiot. That’s why she bit him. Another one gets a slap on the wrist. What a joke.
I agree that Henley should’ve received jail time but the good part of this is his picture and name will be shown on this registry for anyone to see. People will now know he is an animal abuser.
Thanks for your input.
what a sick sob. I hope he rots in hell for his evil deed.
Piece of dirt! Why isn’t he in jail?
what the hell is wrong with people?
He should be in jail for what he did! Probation is a joke. He KILLED his own dog with a SHOE and he gets no jail time. I’m baffled.
Yeah, what gives with no jail time? I don’t understand this one.
He deserves what he did to his dog. Walk away. Take a time out. Give the dog another home. Don’t beat it to death because she wouldn’t listen to you! People don’t understand that we are the ones who need to be trained to have our dogs understand commands. He had so many options but felt he had none except to kill the dog with a shoe. What sick, evil person does that?
what a creep.
He should rot in jail.
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Do you realize how hard he had to beat his dog to kill him? He deserved a prison sentence.