A Manitoba teen who senselessly battered a puppy with a golf club and severed its head with a garden chisel in front of two young kids is now free and living in Winnipeg.

The 15-year-old was sentenced Friday to two years of supervised probation after pleading guilty previously to animal cruelty and other unrelated offences at a First Nations community north of Winnipeg.

He had been locked up since his July 2011 arrest following the disturbing attack on his cousin’s roughly three-month-old shepherd mix puppy.

The attack was committed in front of his younger brother and a five-year-old boy, court heard.

The teen was freed Friday to live in the city with his mother.

Prosecutor Sheila Seesahai described the attack as “a terrible incident involving extreme cruelty.”

The puppy, one of several in a litter being tended to by the cousin, was “effectively his cousin’s pet,” Seesahai said.

A few hours prior to the attack, the youth threw a rock at the dog, hitting it.

He later returned to slug the animal with the golf club and behead it with a chisel-like garden instrument.

The girl who owned the dog was then walked over to the dismembered carcass and shown what he did.

“That was obviously something that was very sad and troubling for her,” said Seesahai.

The girl’s mother photographed the crime scene and gave the images to RCMP.

The youth can’t explain why he killed the dog, other than hinting family “animosity” may be at play, court heard.

He and the younger boys were “just walking around” and “wanted to do something,” Seesahai said, quoting from a pre-sentencing report.

“He reported he had smoked three joints ... and recalled feeling bored and restless,” Seesahai said.

He has not been diagnosed with any specific psychiatric disorder, court heard.

A slightly different picture was painted by the youth’s defence lawyer, who stated the boy delivered the fatal blow with the club and then threw the chisel, somehow managing to behead the puppy completely.

“He tells me that he felt immediately awful,” Matthew Raffey said. “He knew that it was wrong. He said that he felt ashamed.”

“This is very concerning to me,” Judge Janice leMaistre told the youth, who sat with a blank expression throughout the hearing.

“What I was most concerned about was the killing of the dog in the presence of your little brother and your cousin ... killing animals to eat them is an acceptable thing for you to do ... it’s when there’s no reason, then it becomes something that’s cruel and you can’t do it,” she said.

LeMaistre endorsed the two-year probationary term. His seven months of pre-trial custody weren’t noted on his record as part of the overall sentence.

He’s now bound by a laundry list of conditions, including not to be alone with pets or domestic animals. He had no prior record.

The Crown withdrew a bid to have the incident labeled a serious violent offence. No reason was given in court.