Calgary father who killed 2 dogs in violent attacks gets 3 years in jail

A Calgary father who was sentenced to three years in prison for the brutal killing of two dogs told the judge that if he was responsible for killing the animals, he had "no memory" of the crimes.

John Geick, 40, was convicted on two counts of animal cruelty last year.

Before he was handed his sentence Friday, Geick was allowed to speak. 

"I'm terrified I'm not going to come out of this the same person, that I'm not going to come out of this a good person," he told Court of Queen's Bench Justice Bernette Ho.

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Prosecutor Rose Greenwood proposed a 3½- to four-year sentence, while defence lawyer Efrayim Moldofsky asked for his client to serve six months under conditions at home. 

Ho ruled that the brutality of the crimes justified a prison term of three years.

Tyler and Sophie

In February 2019, Geick lived with his spouse Joanna Smith, their infant son and two dogs: a six-year-old basset hound named Sophie and a five-year-old Chihuahua named Tyler. 

Within three days, both animals died suddenly and unexpectedly.

Smith became suspicious after her second dog died. She called the animal hospital asking the Calgary Humane Society to investigate.

Eventually, necropsies showed the animals both died from severe trauma — multiple blunt force injuries so severe that Sophie would have died within minutes, Tyler within hours.

The veterinarian who performed the necropsy found injuries to Sophie's lips, mouth, eye, legs, stomach, head, chest and ears.

The basset hound's liver had been "pulverized" and she bled into her abdomen. 

The dog, said the vet, would have been in "immense pain" and wouldn't have lived more than 60 minutes after being abused.