Second person charged in connection to dog thrown from bridge

By Jenna Wilson

A second St. Joseph man has been charged with animal abuse in the case of a dog that was thrown off an Andrew County bridge.

Shelton A. Monico is charged with the Class A misdemeanor of animal abuse in Buchanan County.

Monico, who owned the dog, admitted to causing injury to his dog by striking it in the head/neck area multiple times after the dog urinated on furniture on June 9, according to a probable cause statement.

The dog was then left inside a kennel on the owner’s back porch for approximately five hours while he visited a friend’s residence. Monico did not seek care from a veterinarian following the injury. Later that evening, the dog was found at the bottom of a ditch in Andrew County, Missouri.

The dog was alive when found in the ditch but later succumbed to its injuries.

During an interview with officials on Aug. 15, Monico admitted to “going too far” and as a result of his abuse earlier that day, the dog was “bleeding from the mouth.”

In a text message sent to his roommate, he asked him “to do something with (the dog)” after believing it wasn’t going to make it, the probable cause statement said.

Arnold D. Thomas was charged in June with animal abuse in Andrew County. Court documents said he admitted to taking the dog, which he said he thought was dead, wrapped in a comforter and dropping it from the bridge.