Man sentenced to prison in animal cruelty case

A 39-year-old man was sentenced to prison on Tuesday for attempting to kill multiple puppies in November.

Micheal Grindrod, 39, initially faced five felony counts of willfully or maliciously torturing, maiming or killing animals, but he pleaded guilty in December to a felony charge of cruelty to animals, court records show.

During a sentencing hearing Tuesday, Grindrod’s attorney asked the judge to avoid sending him to prison, and argued for Grindrod to spend time in the Clark County Detention Center before receiving in-patient mental health treatment. But District Judge Susan Johnson sided with prosecutors and sentenced Grindrod to between 12 to 30 months in prison.

“This is very sad to me,” Johnson said about the case.

Grindrod will have credit for 71 days he has spent in custody, and the judge recommended he go through a drug treatment program while in prison.

He was arrested on Nov. 5 after police were called to an apartment complex near Charleston and Jones boulevards to help animal control officers who were picking up five puppies from a dumpster. According to a police report, the puppies were 1- to 2-week-old German Shepherd mixes who were covered in a bleach-like substance.

Grindrod told police that a plan to give the puppies away fell through, so he put the puppies inside a garbage bag and sprayed them with a mixture of bleach and cleaning chemicals to “expedite the process by shaking them with chemicals,” according to the report.

The apartment property manager told police that Grindrod worked at the complex but was evicted and fired for failing a drug test, the report said.

Grindrod told the judge on Tuesday that he was using alcohol and cocaine, and that his dog had puppies around the time he lost his job.

“It was a spur of the moment choice,” he said. “I’m just asking for a chance to show I can rehabilitate.”

Deputy Public Defender Dallas Anselmo told the judge that his client has PTSD from a 2014 workplace injury.

“He tries to cope with that using substances and alcohol, and that produced one colossally poor decision,” Anselmo said.

Anselmo said one of the puppies, who was “ill to begin with,” died after the November incident, but that others have been re-homed.

Prosecutor Megan Thomson argued that Grindrod made a “calculated decision,” and waited until his children fell asleep until he attempted to hurt the puppies.

“There’s shelters, there’s so many options,” Thomson said. “I don’t see how any of the excuses that have been provided explain why this choice was made.”

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240.