In a striking show for animal welfare, a Nevada man who gruesomely tortured and killed seven dogs was sentenced to up to 28 years in a state prison on Thursday.
Jason Brown, 25, was arrested last year after a dismembered dog was found inside his Reno motel room. When officers investigated further, they made a shocking discovery — inside the motel room’s fridge were four severed dog’s heads.
Brown had been responding to local Craigslist ads, offering to take dogs and puppies whom people were giving away for free — and promising to give them good homes.
Some of the owners who gave or sold Brown dogs testified that he “seemed like a normal clean-cut kid,” AP reports.
During the trial, the jury heard the terrifying audio from several videos Brown had recorded as he tortured and dismembered the dogs – including the screams and cries from the animals.
“I’m making a jacket out of them,” Brown says in one video. “The little white Chihuahuas are my favorite. If I get one of those, they are coming to Jason’s house of pain.”
Brown told the judge on Thursday that he was doing drugs at the time and “no longer had control of myself.”
People who abuse or neglect animals are often able to adopt or buy animals again and again, avoiding punishment and repeating the tragic cycle.
In this case, the shocking, horrific nature of Brown’s crimes led to his harsh sentence. He won’t even be eligible for parole for 11 more years.
“Those images I watched, I will never forget,” Judge Elliott Sattler said before delivering the maximum sentence on Thursday. “The cruelty, the sadism you exhibited is simply shocking.”
