NORTH FORT MYERS, Fla. — A Lee County man is facing charges after the Lee County Sheriff's Office says he shot his neighbor's pregnant cow five times when the animal wandered onto his property.
Hung Trinh, 55, has been charged with aggravated animal cruelty and theft of a commercial farm animal after the incident on Tuesday.
The Lee County Sheriff's Office said the cow's owner called deputies after discovering his two-year-old cow had been shot multiple times.
Deputies from LCSO's Agriculture Unit investigated and determined that while the cow had jumped a fence onto Trinh's property, they couldn't find any issues with the fence that would have allowed the animal to escape.
Watch deputies respond to the cow after the shooting Community Correspondent Ella Rhoades' report:
"The suspect had threatened to shoot the livestock had it gone back on their property as well so throughout the investigation, we learned that's exactly what happened," Lee County Sheriff's Office Public Information Officer Julie Sin said.
According to authorities, the neighbors had previous arguments about livestock crossing property lines.
"They killed a piece of livestock that was going to be used to be sold in the future, so you're now taking from that farmer taking some money away from them and taking away all that livestock," Sin said.
The cow's owner, who declined to appear on camera, showed where his 14 cows are kept and revealed the cow Trinh allegedly shot was pregnant.
A veterinarian had to euthanize the cow due to the severity of her injuries, according to deputies.
"There's no reason that this verbal altercation between two neighbors had to turn into what it did, an animal cruelty case, but at this time, we're going to hold that suspect accountable," Sin said.
LCSO emphasized that Trinh could have handled the situation differently and without harming the animal.
"Our Agriculture Unit said that this was an extremely unusual case, and they hadn't seen cases like this in the past," Sin said.
The Lee County Sheriff's Office advises the community who spot loose animals to report them to authorities rather than taking matters into their own hands.
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