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A sheriff’s deputy in Michigan has found himself being the one locked up, after being arrested on a felony charge for allegedly abusing and killing his service animal.

The officer, Jacob Wilkinson, was arrested on Monday and was simultaneously fired from his job with the Genesee County Sheriff’s Office. The charges arouse after the corpse of the dog was discovered in a ditch, badly injured.

The decaying body of the dog was found with multiple bullet holes in the head, and had been duct-taped as well, before the body was abandoned in the ditch. According to MILive.com, the dog was killed some time ago, but the body had been covered by the winter snow, and the corpse remained undetected until March 24th.

The reason given by authorities for why the dog was killed was that the dog had nipped him while Wilkinson had been grooming the dog. According to Sheriff Christopher Swanson, this caused Wilkinson to snap and resort to extreme measures:

“There was a time somewhere between September, October-ish where he was trimming the dog’s nails and the dog nipped at him. And that guy … thought he had enough control over the dog that you’re not gonna do that, so he duct-taped the rear legs of the dog, duct-taped the front legs of the dog, duct-taped the muzzle,” Swanson said on a Facebook video.

According to the necropsy performed by animal control (an autopsy for animals), and noted that the dog had been microchipped. The dog had originally been sent by the Detroit Animal Care and Control office to a local Humane Society, from which the dog then went to an rehabilitation program for Michigan prisoners that allows them to care for the dogs as part of their (the prisoners) therapy.

At that point the dog came into contact with Wilkinson, who had been responsible for taking the dog through its initial training process. At that time, Wilkinson had been employed by the Michigan Department of Corrections, and wound up adopting the dog himself, instead of handing it over to the prisoner therapy program.

When the dog was discovered in March, the microchip led investigators to interview Wilkinson, and they say he confessed to killing the dog and dumping it in the ditch. A warrant was issued for Wilkinson last Monday, and he appeared for a video call with Judge David D. Hoffman for his arraignment for the charge of second-degree torturing or killing of an animal, which is a felony and carries a sentence of up to seven years in prison.

Currently, Wilkinson is out on a $10,000 personal recognizance bond, Fox News reported. As part of his bond, he is not permitted to possess any firearms or animals.

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