MILAN, Pa. (WETM) – A Bradford County man has been sentenced for cutting off a puppy’s tail late last year.
Richard Armitage, 50, was originally arrested and charged with Animal Cruelty after Pennsylvania State Police responded to a home in Ulster in January 2021 for a report of a man swinging a dog in circles around his head with a harness.
Police discovered that Armitage had cut off the puppy’s tail several weeks before, resulting in a wound that had not healed correctly. Armitage admitted to giving the dog Tylenol, but he never took it to the vet.
He was sentenced to 4 to 23 months and 29 days in the Bradford County Correctional Facility and fines of $250.
The puppy, Ryder, was taken to the Bradford County Humane Society to recover. He was reportedly covered in fleas with a bloody scab on his tail. He needed surgery because his tail was cut off without any asking or flesh to cover the vertebrae.
The surgery required that Ryder lose another vertebra to close the wound with the chance of neurological impairment.
