What was motive behind McHenry Co. dog shooting

By Charles Keeshan
Daily Herald Staff
Published: 6/29/2010 10:59 AM
Updated: 6/29/2010 4:49 PM

What was motive behind McHenry Co. dog shooting

Was it euthanasia or an execution?

That's the question before a McHenry County jury this week as they began hearing testimony Tuesday in the trial of a 57-year-old man accused of holding a gun to the head of the family dog and pulling the trigger.
Kirk M. Locher, of Woodstock, faces charges of aggravated cruelty and reckless discharge of a firearm in the May 31, 2008, shooting that killed Breeze, his 3-year-old yellow Labrador retriever.
During opening statements Tuesday, a prosecutor told the jury Locher was drunk and angry at the dog early that morning when he carried a handgun into his kitchen and fired one shot into the dog's head as his stunned wife sat nearby. Police later found the dog's body in a garbage can.

"This is a case about destruction, a case about a man out of control, a man fueled by whiskey," Assistant McHenry County State's Attorney Ryan Blackney said. "You can call it an execution. It was nothing else."
Locher's attorney, however, called it euthanasia. Daniel Hofmann said his client loved his dog and the dog loved him, but those feelings changed about a month before the shooting when Locher had to hold down Breeze while the dog was having its nails cut.
From then on, Hofmann said, Breeze turned aggressive, biting Locher and going after a grandchild on another occasion. On the night of the shooting, Hofmann said, Breeze bit Locher for a second time.
"Kirk felt that at that point what he needed to do was make sure that it never happens again and he euthanized it," he said. "He was not acting recklessly and he was legally justified."
Locher's wife, Donna Locher, was among the first witnesses called by prosecutors. She told the jury her husband was angry and bleeding from his thumb when he woke her up about 1 a.m. that morning while getting his gun from a bedroom.
"He said 'I'm going to shoot the dog'," she said. "He said the dog had bit him a second time. He was upset. I guess very upset."
She testified she followed him to the kitchen and was sitting at a table when her husband reached over and shot Breeze as the dog sat across from them.
Both charges against Locher are Class 4 felonies, punishable by a maximum one to three years in prison, or probation. His trial is expected to end Wednesday.