An Athens man last week shot his neighbor’s dog and then tried beating it to death with a baseball bat.

Joshua Gregory Allen, 42, said he had been bothered for years by the dog’s incessant barking and lost it when the dog began barking again, according to Athens-Clarke County police.

It was about 1 p.m. on Friday when Allen told police he was attempting to enjoy some time on the back porch of his home on Lucille Street, in a neighborhood located off of Oglethorpe Avenue.

"The dog would not stop barking," the man reportedly told police. "Allen said he then lost control of himself."

Allen said he got his handgun, went to the fence between his property and his neighbor’s and then shot the dog three or four times, according to police.

The bullets did not kill the dog, Allen told police, so he climbed the fence and began beating the animal with a metal baseball bat in an attempt to end its life.

The dog’s owner was inside his house at the time, and he told police that when he heard the dog "yelping and screaming as if in pain," he initially thought the dog was being attacked by coyotes, since he lived very close to some woods.

The man armed himself with a gun and went outside, at which time he saw Allen beating his dog, according to police. Allen reportedly told the dog’s owner that he would call police and turn himself in.

Allen and he dog’s owner both called 911 within seconds of each other, police said. Along the way, one of the responding police officers passed the dog owner’s wife as she was driving the badly wounded pet to a nearby animal hospital.

The dog was said by police to still be alive when an officer went to the animal hospital.

Allen was arrested for aggravated animal cruelty, a felony, and also with reckless endangerment for firing the gun into his neighbor’s yard.

Allen spent a little more than 24 hours in the Clarke County Jail prior to being released Saturday evening upon posting a total bond of $5,000.

The dog’s owners could not be reached for comment through the phone number listed for them in a police report.

Someone who is Facebook friends with the grieving owners said that one of the owners posted online that "Chloe," a mix-breed pit bull, was euthanized at about 8 p.m. Friday.