Man who hacked dog
to death gets probation

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By Peter Serafin
Special to the Star-Bulletin

KEAAU, Hawaii >> A Big Island man who admitted killing his landlord's dog with a machete last year was sentenced to one year on probation and 500 hours of community service yesterday.

Judge Jeffery Choi also ordered Jeffery Fendentz to continue psychological counseling at his own expense, pay $1,843.29 in restitution to the dog's owners, in addition to court costs, and comply with all restraining orders.

Fendentz pleaded no contest to a charge of cruelty to animals in February. On Dec. 15, he had grabbed his machete and walked onto the property of Bob Arthurs, his landlord and next-door neighbor in the rural Orchidland subdivision south of Hilo. The Arthurs' family dog, Blaze, a German shepherd mix, was tied up about 40 feet away from where Arthurs and a friend were working.

Arthurs told the court that when he went over to see why Blaze was barking, he discovered that the dog's head had been "hacked almost all the way off." He rushed Blaze to a veterinary clinic, where she later died.

Arthurs stated that his daughter Leilani cried for days after the death.

"I couldn't even go near her," he said.

Fendentz maintained that the dog had attacked or killed as many as 13 feral cats in the neighborhood, some of which his family had adopted as pets, and characterized the dog as "a pest."

"This is like 'Rashomon,' with two opposite versions of the facts," said Choi, referring to the Akira Kurosawa classic, during the sentencing hearing.

"Dog lovers have an extreme emotional view, while cat lovers have an extreme emotional view on the other side."

Fendentz was represented by John Carroll, a Republican candidate for governor.

Since the incident, Fendentz has been taking anger management classes.