Man sentenced to six months in jail for dragging puppy

EDINBURG — A Weslaco man convicted of dragging a 4-month-old puppy behind his all-terrain vehicle was sentenced Thursday to 6 months in county jail.

Jurors took more than six hours to settle on a sentence for 26-year-old Heriberto Zamora despite finding him guilty of animal cruelty charges in less than an hour Wednesday.

Weslaco police arrested Zamora June 20, 2008, after several neighbors called to report seeing him dragging the golden retriever puppy through his south-side neighborhood. The dog survived the incident with several scrapes but died three months later in the care of a local animal shelter.

Zamora told jurors earlier in the week that his neighbors hadn’t understood what they saw that day was an accident. He had often walked his dogs on a leash while riding on his ATV with no problems, he said, but the pup fell on the day in question. Zamora maintained he stopped the vehicle as soon as he noticed the dog was no longer running beside him.

In addition to his jail sentence, jurors also assessed a $2,500 fine. Attorneys for both sides did not return calls for comment Thursday evening.

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Jeremy Roebuck covers courts and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4437.