Stranger stabs family’s beloved dog to death in sudden unprovoked park attack

28 June 2023 , 18:43

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11-year-old fluffy mixed-breed pooch Beignet was horrifically stabbed to death (Image: Liesbeth Mackie)

A family is in mourning and a state of shock after a man suddenly launched an unprovoked and bloody knife attack on their beloved dog - slaughtering the poor pooch in a public park.

James Wesley Henry, 43, was arrested this week for stabbing 11-year-old fluffy mixed-breed pooch Beignet to death in an attack that shocked authorities and the public.

Henry had reportedly approached the dog while the owner was playing pickleball at a a public park in broad daylight. After he had found the pup, he grabbed it by the throat and stabbed it repeatedly, police said.

He has been charged with felony cruelty to animals.

“The guy killed the dog with a knife, basically eviscerating it,” Asheville Police Captain Michael Lamb told the Asheville Watchdog.

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The New York Post reports that Beignet’s owner Liesbeth Mackie told them, "she brought her dog with her to Weaver Park and secured her on a long leash in a shady spot a few feet away from the pickleball court."

A North Carolina man viciously attacked a family’s dog, stabbing it repeatedly until it died (Liesbeth Mackie)

James Wesley Henry, 43, was arrested for the killing of the mixed-breed pooch named Beignet at an Asheville park (Asheville Police)

Mackie and the other players did notice a man acting erratically and yelling but didn't think much of the situation as he wasn't actually bothering one, and his shouting didn't have a target - dismissing him as the usual kind of commotion that can happen in a public park.

It was just minutes later that Mackie's pickleball partner noticed the man attacking the dog in the park, in Asheville, North Carolina.

“All of a sudden, I noticed that there was some commotion happening with her dog,” pickleball player Eric Hulin told the Watchdog. “I saw the attacker, definitely with all of his strength — with what I thought at the time was a closed fist — slamming on the dog, really.”

It turned out Henry was holding a knife in his fist.

“I turned and looked at the dog, and saw its last couple of yelps and twitches,” Mr Hulin said to the outlet, adding that he "can’t get the image out" of his head.

“It was covered in blood. There was blood everywhere. It took me a moment because I wasn’t sure what happened," he added.

When what transpired became clear, a few parkgoers managed to chase Henry off but he had already finished committing the crime and began to walk about quickly, dropping the knife along the path.

The police were called and were able to arrest Henry without any issues.

Henry is being held in the Buncombe County Detention Facility on $10,000 bond.

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