OGDEN, Utah — A Utah man was arrested Tuesday after officers found a dead dog and cat in his bathtub in June and he claimed he’d eaten the animals' hearts.
Bruce Anthony Saunders, 33, of Ogden, is charged with two counts of third-degree felony torture of a companion animal and one count of misdemeanor criminal mischief, according to the Deseret News. He is being held in the Weber County Jail with bail set at $12,500.
The News reported that Saunders first appeared on law enforcement officers' radar on June 6 when he “cut his finger off” at his apartment. The following day, officers returned to the apartment after his girlfriend found him unresponsive.
The woman told police she’d found him, along with “large amounts of blood,” and thought he might be dead, the newspaper reported.
An arrest warrant, obtained by the News and the Ogden Standard-Examiner, states that responding officers found a bloody baseball bat in the living room. The mutilated and partially dismembered animals were in the tub.
Saunders was not dead, and when officers talked to him about what happened to the dog and cat, he said he had “chopped up the dog and cat and ate their hearts,” the court documents state.
His motive for doing so was not clear.
“We don’t diagnose mental health,” Ogden police Lt. Michael Boone told the Standard-Examiner on Wednesday.
Court records indicate Saunders' girlfriend obtained a protective order against him July 17, the newspaper reported.
Cox Media Group
Sign Up
