A hunter who claimed he shot and skinned what he thought were two coyotes but turned out to be a Connecticut family’s pet German shepherds has been criminally charged. Michael Konschak, 61, of Carmel, New York, said during a hearing in Danbury Superior Court on Wednesday that he was ashamed of what he did.
Police with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection arrested Konschak in February on charges including tampering with evidence, forgery, interfering with a law enforcement officer, and hunting-related violations.
The dogs’ owners and animal rights advocates, among dozens of others, attended the court hearing. Konschak requested a special probation program that could have resulted in the charges being erased, but a judge rejected that request.
Konschak’s attorney called the dogs’ deaths an accident. Erin Caviola, of Ridgefield, said she and her family searched for their dogs for weeks and posted flyers after they went missing, and that they are heartbroken about what happened to them. She said the dogs’ heads were removed and remain missing.
In an arrest warrant affidavit, police said Konschak killed the dogs with a crossbow on November 18, 2021, after they escaped from a Ridgefield family’s yard.
The family said the dogs – Lieben, a female, and Cimo, a male, both 10 years old – got out because a fence was damaged, possibly by a bear. Konschak was hunting deer in nearby property and said he killed what he thought were two coyotes, the affidavit said.
His lawyer, Brian Romano, said Konschak skinned the animals for their pelts. The hunting and trapping of coyotes is legal in Connecticut.
However, the prosecutor, Danbury State’s Attorney David Applegate, alleged there were inconsistencies in Konschak’s story and questioned how Konschak could not see that the animals were dogs before skinning them.
Animal rights advocates have urged authorities to add animal cruelty charges, and Applegate said the case is still being investigated, and more charges are possible.
According to the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, “regulated hunting and trapping may be used to remove problem coyotes in areas where it is safe and legal to do so.”
Caviola started a Change.org petition, claiming that Konschak “forged permission to be hunting on private property in this area” since he is a New York resident. “Their murder, skinning, and beheading has taken a very large emotional toll on our family,” she said in her victim impact statement. “The violence of Cimo and Lieben’s death and mutilation has caused unimaginable trauma, suffering, exhaustion and has left a black cloud over our usually happy and loving family.” In 2017, a New Jersey hunter who killed a one-year-old Alaskan shepherd with a bow and arrow claimed he thought the pet was a coyote.
»Hunter who killed and skinned pet dogs and claimed he thought they were coyotes criminally charged«
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