BY DAN HILDEBRAN
General manager
LAKE BUTLER— Florida wildlife officers arrested a 22-year-old Lake Butler man after he was accused of shooting three hunting dogs, killing two.
Lance Anthony Thornton was charged with three counts of animal cruelty and one count of evidence tempering. After deputies booked him into the Union County Jail Monday evening, the defendant bonded out on a $15,000 bond.
A witness who told a Gainesville television station she owns one of the dogs said the canines were chasing deer at the Piney Bay Hunt Club off State Road 121 when Thornton shot the animals from a neighboring property.
The dogs’ owners said they could prove the animals were on hunting club property at the time they were shot through GPS devices the dogs were wearing.
