DANBURY, Conn. -- An animal rights group is organizing a letter-writing campaign calling for the stiff punishment of a man charged with knocking a neighbor's German shepherd unconscious and shoving it into a wood chipper.

Steven Serfilippi, 25, faces charges of killing a dog and cruelty to animals punishable by 18 months in prison and a fine of $890, prosecutors said.


He is free on $20,000 bond, but has been ordered to remain under psychiatric care.

Serfilippi's attorney, Timothy Moynahan, said Wednesday he will ask a judge to put his client on probation and clear his record if he stays out of trouble for two years, a legal sentence known as accelerated rehabilitation.

but Elaine Ferrare, co-chairman of the Danbury Animal Welfare Society, said the group is asking members to write to Judge Francis McDonald urging that Serfilippi not be put on accelerated rehabilitation.

'If you are able to do that kind of atrocity to an animal, you are not going to think twice about doing something awful to a person,' Ferrare said.

Moynahan on Tuesday was granted a delay in the trial until Oct. 7 to prepare a request for Serfilippi's placement in a rehabilitation program. In the meantime, McDonald ordered Serfilippi to remain under psychiatric care.

Serfilippi has admitted he stole the German shepherd named Duke in August, knocked it unconscious and put it in the mechanical wood chipper, police said.

Police said he then apologized to the owner, Deborah Newton, 25, saying the dog died a painless death.

Serfilippi and Newton lived in separate houses on the same rural property, police said.