PA man who duct-taped dog is sentenced

A judge on Friday sentenced a northeastern Pennsylvania man whose dog was found with her muzzle and legs duct-taped together.

The Pike County judge ordered 27-year-old Russell Seese of Greentown to pay a $500 fine and sentenced him to a jail term of two days to 12 months..

Seese was charged in March after state police found his female Labrador-pit bull mix, Lexi, in a chicken coop with her muzzle and legs duct-taped together.

Seese works with student groups as a resource conservationist with the PIke County Conservation District.

Lexi, now named Jaynah, is in the care of a Pittsburgh dog rescue, Divine Destiny Rescue.The group posted on its Facebook page that it wished Seese received a tougher sentence.

One wonders why no restitution was ordered given the thousands that were spent on vet bills to help her recover and extensive behavior training that was needed. Nor did the judge see fit to bar Seese from pet ownership.

Most disturbing of all, Seese's attorney Wieslaw Niemoczynski, was quoted in local news reports at the time Seese was ordered to stand trial last spring as saying that his client was trying to kill Lexi at the time and that using duct tape was, in his view, an acceptable method to do so.

"There's a fuller story that will come out obviously in a higher court," he said. "You are legally entitled to destroy your dog, how you go about it is one of the challenges of modern times."