Dead Husky's owner says he was 'training' puppy

Trevor Wilhelm
The Windsor Star
Monday, April 14, 2008

CREDIT: Handout, The Windsor Star

Photo of Kiki the dog that was allegedly beaten so severely, he had to be put down. Windsor police are investigating the dog's death, after people witnessed its owner allegedly throwing the dog against a fire hydrant while out for a walk.

CREDIT: Nick Brancaccio, Windsor Star
Qu 'Luki' Li, 23, has been charged after his Husky pup was found with serious injuries. Li, a second-year University of Windsor business student granted an interview from the living room of his west side home.

CREDIT: Dan Janisse, The Windsor Star
The Windsor fire hydrant where Kiki the Husky puppy was severely beaten is shown here.

WINDSOR -- The university student who horrified onlookers by choking his four-month-old Husky, before kicking it and slamming it against a fire hydrant, said he was just trying to train the puppy.

When police found the dog, named Kiki, it had multiple broken bones including all four legs.

Officers also seized a coffee table leg from the man's home that police believe was used to beat the dog, judging by the chunks of hair embedded in it.

"I used my hand to punch it a little," said Qu "Luki" Li, a second year University of Windsor business student from China. "Just small movements."

"The police man came to my house. They said I'm hurting my dog. But I think I'm training her."

Li is charged with causing unnecessary suffering to an animal.

Police said residents in the area of Rankin Avenue on April 4 saw a man dragging a puppy on a leash. Then he started to beat it.

"The dog was yelping," said Windsor police Staff Sgt. Ed McNorton. "He lifted it by the leash, hanging right off the ground dangling it. Obviously the dog is choking. Then he pulled it by the leash, smashed into a fire hydrant, was kicking it."

The witnesses were so upset by the public display of violence against the helpless animal that they followed the man back to his Rankin Avenue home.

"They did yell at him, they said 'knock it off, quit it,' as they followed him," McNorton said. "Then he went into his house and obviously they're not going to go in there."

After he went inside, they called police. While waiting for officers to arrive, the witnesses could hear the dog crying out in agony from inside the house, said McNorton.

"From time to time you get cases where animals are abused, but to outright beat a young animal like this to the extent that it was is truly disgusting," he said. "It's disturbing. It's only a puppy, it's an animal, there's no cause for it."

Police turned the puppy over to the Humane Society, which had to euthanize it. The dog would have required extensive medical intervention including grafting.

"The left legs were completely shattered on the dog," said Nancy McCabe, field operations manager for the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (OSPCA). "There was no way we could even consider trying to surgically repair the legs."

"Two of the fractures, you could see in the X-ray, the bone looks like someone just chopped them right in half. It's terrible. I don't understand what's going on. Come on. It's a damn puppy."

The maximum penalty for causing unnecessary suffering to an animal is a $2,000 fine and/or six months in jail.

Li said he doesn't deserve jail time. He said he was using force to train the dog.

"Here, I didn't know I need a lot of things to take care of a dog," said Li. "That I can not just punch animals."

He said it was through the training, which involved punching the dog, that its legs got broken.

Li said that on April 4, Kiki got out an open door. He went after it, but the dog wouldn't come back. So when he caught up with it, Li said he grabbed it by the back of the neck.

"Hurt her, maybe she can understand," said Li. "I didn't know that's cruel to animals. I'm an international student, so I didn't know you have a law against cruelty to animals."

McCabe said Kiki's plight is the latest in a number of heartbreaking animal abuse cases in Windsor, and one of the worst she's seen.

"The way this dog was beaten was just unmerciful," she said. "It was just disgusting."

In June 2007, a puppy named A.K. was found on a Sandwich Street balcony with his ears cut off, allegedly to make him look more menacing. Rony Salman was charged with seven animal cruelty counts under the Criminal Code.

In February, the OSPCA found two puppies at Tuscarora Street house that had starved to death. One was left outside on the porch. The other was inside in the bathroom.

"Once we started talking to the owner, it came about that this dog Princess had 10 puppies and only five survived," said McCabe. "By the time we got there, there was only one alive."

McCabe said the dogs were so hungry that they ate mud and sticks for nourishment.

"The puppies only had sticks and mud in the stomach and intestines," she said. "Nothing else. Not a drop of food, not a drop of water. They were starving to death and that's what they were trying to survive on."

Amanda Armstrong and Mohammad Charara are facing animal cruelty charges.

"It seems like all hell is breaking loose out there," said McCabe. "I've never really had to deal with something like this so often. I've worked at this job for 25 years. I don't know what's going on out there."

twilhelm@thestar.canwest.com or 519-255-5777, ext. 642

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