Hunker man acquitted of animal cruelty in dog shooting, found guilty of other charges

A Hunker man told a Westmoreland County jury he had no alternative but to kill his neighbor’s dog as it lay wounded in his driveway after being shot by another neighbor.

“The dog was growling, showing it’s teeth. I was intimidated. It stood up on its front legs but couldn’t move. It was a hurt dog, so I shot it to put it out of its misery,” testified Jason Beal in his own defense on Tuesday during the second day of his animal cruelty trial.

The jury deliberated about an hour before it found Beal, 37, not guilty of a misdemeanor charge of animal cruelty.

The jury convicted Beal of three other counts: tampering with evidence, conspiracy, and theft, related to discarding the bodies of two dogs in nearby woods and covering up the shootings.

Prosecutors contended Beal executed Aspen, a 4-year-old Alaskan malamute, as revenge after it escaped from a neighbor’s yard on Dec. 2, 2021, broke into his chicken coop and killed a pet peacock.

Police said another neighbor, James Hill, 78, of Hunker shot and killed a 5-year-old German shepherd-mix named Hagrid and wounded Aspen before helping Beal get rid of the dead animals.

Beal, according to police, removed the dogs’ collars and never disclosed the shooting even as their owners searched for their missing pets and asked for assistance via social media and news reports.

Beal said he moved the dogs to not cover up the shooting but to shield his young children from seeing the dead animals. The dogs were discovered days later by hunters.

“I took off their collars and put them into the trash. I thought when the dogs were found they’d be decomposed, and I didn’t want anybody to see that,” Beal testified.

The dogs’ owner, Caraline McElfresh Zimmerman, said her family has since moved from Hunker.

“It was definitely traumatic,” Zimmerman said. “It wasn’t the only reason we moved, but it lit the fire to move. I didn’t forget that they said my dogs were aggressive. That’s crazy.”

During her closing arguments, Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Ranger argued that Beal’s actions were not as he described.

“He was angry they killed his peacock. This was revenge,” Ranger said. “His response was criminal.”

Westmoreland County Common Please Court Judge Scott Mears said he will sentence Beal, who is free on bail, in about three months.

Hill pleaded guilty last summer to one count of animal cruelty and was ordered to serve six months on probation.