2-4 YEARS? ..... IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN AT LEAST 24 YEARS

Man who shot and grilled his rescued greyhound sentenced to prison 

 

By Joshua Rhett Miller

 

New York Post

March 24, 2022

 

Police said they found Nikolay Lukyanchikov “incredibly intoxicated.” Lukyanchikov said he shot his dog because he was having a rough day. He was sentenced to 2-4 years in prison for shooting and grilling his rescued greyhound

 

 

An “incredibly intoxicated” Pennsylvania man who shot and grilled his dog in a fire pit will serve up to four years in prison, prosecutors said.

Nikolay Lukyanchikov, 50, was sentenced Wednesday to two to four years in state prison after pleading guilty to aggravated cruelty to animals and other charges in the dog’s gruesome death last April, according to the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office.

A judge also barred Lukyanchikov — who told investigators he shot the rescued greyhound he renamed Preacher because he was “having a rough day” — from owning or caring for any animal upon his release.

The dog, which was discovered atop a fire pit in the front yard of Lukyanchikov’s Northampton Township home, was rescued along with 117 others in 2019 from a racetrack in China described as the “worst hellhole” for racing dogs in the world, prosecutors said.

Lukyanchikov then adopted the former racing dog in Philadelphia later that year and renamed him Preacher. Cops responded to the man’s home on April 30 and found a burning fire pit along with a couch in flames.

Police said in an affidavit they found Lukyanchikov “incredibly intoxicated” as he sat on a bench near the fire and tossed fake $100 bills into the flames while squirting it with lighter fluid. He also had a 9mm handgun was loaded with blanks, cops said.

The badly burned and charred dog was then found atop a small metal charcoal grill in Lukyanchikov’s yard. A necropsy determined Preacher had been shot at least once, authorities said.

Lukyanchikov’s roommate told cops he had shot Preacher earlier that day in his room. Investigators seized a 9mm handgun loaded with five hollow-point rounds inside the residence, prosecutors said.

 

Lukyanchikov was banned from owning an animal upon his release from prison

 

 

A week prior to the macabre discovery, Lukyanchikov had stolen a 9mm Beretta handgun with an extended magazine from a friend’s widow that he used to kill Preacher, Deputy District Attorney Robert James told Judge Raymond McHugh Wednesday.

Lukyanchikov, who had tried to buy a gun for himself but was denied due to a prior involuntary commitment in 2011, told McHugh Wednesday he was “very sorry” for his actions, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

“It scares me because you know you’re not supposed to have a gun, and you kept pursuing one,” McHugh told Lukyanchikov. “You should not have a gun, period.”

Lukyanchikov’s blood-alcohol level was 0.25 when he was taken into custody and was so intoxicated he was unable to speak, the Inquirer reported, citing a police affidavit.

“I think it’s fair to characterize him as a dangerous person who demonstrated his use of a gun on an animal,” James said. “And it’s not a stretch to think he’d use it on a human.”