The deaths of two dogs on Dry Branch Road in Marshall has a man facing one count of misdemeanor animal cruelty. Marc Stuetzel, 64, was arrested by the Madison County Sheriff’s Office on Dec. 1 in connection to the alleged incident, which dates back to Sept. 17.

Carrie Jones lost her dog Ringo, a red Staffordshire terrier, that afternoon. “It was traumatic,” she said in an interview before charges were filed. “It was really awful.”

In a written statement that Jones shared with law enforcement and The News-Record & Sentinel, she detailed her account of events that ended with her dog and the dog of a friend shot to death.

“I heard a loud crack like a firecracker,” she wrote, describing that Stuetzel allegedly first fired one shot at Sirius, identified as a black mountain cur/Australian shepherd owned by Lori Wilkins in court records, as he stood on a bicycle on Dry Branch Road beside Jones’ home. “I see Sirius about 4 feet away from the man, on the embankment, screaming and bleeding.”

Moments later, according to Jones’ account, she followed steps behind Ringo as it ran towards Stuetzel.

“I was less than 2 feet from Ringo directly behind the dog and Ringo was close to 5 feet away from the man, still in my yard on the grass embankment, when the man swung the gun around. Ringo turned his body toward the right away from the man and the man shot Ringo behind his left forearm,” she said.

The two dogs died minutes later in Jones’ car, her account states, before the women could take the animals to receive veterinary attention.

Stuetzel’s story

Reached by phone, Stuetzel said the September encounter with the dogs outside Jones’ home was not his first. He said on two previous occasions a pit bull aggressively approached him while he passed the home, once on horseback and another time on foot. A Staffordshire terrier is one dog breed sometimes called a pit bull. Stuetzel said on one of those occasions, a dog jumped and snapped at his horse's throat. On another, according to Stuetzel, a dog bit him in the elbow.

Stuetzel said he rode on his bicycle to Jones’ home a short distance from his own after he said the dogs both chased and bit two young boys he referred to as “family" as they rode by the home on their bicycles. He said he phoned the Madison County animal shelter before departing to report the incident. When an animal shelter officials told him they would not respond to the case for two or three days, he decided to confront the dog owners. A representative with the shelter would not comment on the case when reached by phone.

“I think, ‘I’m going to take care of this and I need to bring protection, so I put a pistol in my pocket,” Stuetzel said in the phone interview.

According to Stuetzel’s account, when he approached the Dry Branch home, a dog approached him aggressively. “Suddenly, a charging pit bull appears in front of me,” he said. “I couldn’t fire a warning shot it happened so fast.”

He said he was surprised when a second dog approached. “I thought there was only one,” he said, before adding, “Pow. I hit that. They were dead when that bullet hit them. There was blood in the road.” Stuetzel called the experience in an email a "blitz attack of two dogs from two different directions," adding that "I may have made a poor decision to revisit the neighbors."

A retired physician, Stuetzel said he has treated patients in the past that suffered serious injuries following pit bull attacks. “These are not social animals,” he said. “They’re bred for fighting, which is illegal. They do not belong in our society. There is no place in our social system for these creatures. They are like loaded weapons.”

Stuetzel was released Dec. 1 after posting a $3,000 bond. He faces up to 120 days in prison if convicted on the animal cruelty charge.

"I don’t care if I win lose or draw, awareness (of this breed) needs to happen," he said.