DV Journal

A Bucks County man who allegedly stabbed his two dogs to death with kitchen knives could be sentenced to 18 years in prison if convicted.

District Attorney Jennifer Schorn held a press conference Wednesday to discuss the horrific incident involving George G. Ash.

“This is a tragic, unimaginable case,” said Schorn. At his Newtown Township home, Ash “brutally beat and then fatally stabbed his two dogs on Jan. 18,” she said. A female Beagle-Collie mix named Shiloh, 9, and Lake, a male Beagle-Lab mix, died.

“To say the defendant’s actions were inhumane is an understatement,” said Schorn. “They were sadistic.”

Ash, 40, was upset after visiting a family member in a nursing home, who he thought “belittled him,” said Schorn. “So, he came home and for hours beat his two dogs.”

George G. Ash

“He took his anger and frustration out on these two defenseless dogs,” said Schorn.

Ash used a paring knife to stab Lake. The knife broke in Lake’s torso, she said. He then got a chef’s knife with an 8-inch and stabbed both dogs, she said.

“The scene in this case was gruesome,” said Schorn. “There [were] pools of blood on the dogs’ bed, on the couch and throughout the first floor of the residence.”

The Newtown Township police processed the scene and recovered both knives that were used to fatally stab the dogs, she said.

“The defendant attempted to take his own life, although his injuries were superficial,” said Schorn. Ash is not in police custody but “he is not at large.”

He is expected to surrender to police “once his needs are addressed,” she said. Schorn declined to discuss where Ash was being treated.

The remains of both dogs were sent to the University of Pennsylvania for a necropsy.

“We did confirm the portion of the blade that broke off in the male dog was recovered from the necropsy,” said Schorn. “I commend the outstanding work done by the police department in this case and the SPCA.”

SPCA Officer Nicole Thompson said they are working with the district attorney and Newtown police “to gain justice for Shiloh and Blake” who were “tragically and horrifically killed by someone they knew well.”

They will “ensure that George Ash is convicted fairly and justly,” said Thompson.

After cutting himself, Ash called 911, said Schorn.

The affidavit of probable cause notes that Ash told the 911 operator that he had kicked and hit his dogs for hours before stabbing them. And, it mentions, he was angry at his mother after visiting her.

According to his LinkedIn account, Ash listed his occupation as an Amazon warehouse associate. No one else was in the house at the time of the attack and Ash did not appear to be intoxicated, said Schorn.

Ash is charged with two felony counts of aggravated cruelty to animals and two misdemeanor counts of cruelty to animals.

Asked whether Ash has an attorney, Manuel Gamiz Jr., a spokesperson for Schorn, said it was unclear. A preliminary hearing has not yet been scheduled.

“I can assure [you] this case will be prosecuted to the fullest extent,” said Schorn.

(From a press release)

Shapiro administration’s commonsense modernization of PA Dog Law is improving community safety and holding kennels to high animal welfare standards.

Harrisburg, PA – Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding reminded Pennsylvania dog owners to purchase a 2025 license from their county treasurer by January 1, 2025. Licenses are not just a legal responsibility of owning a dog, they protect all Pennsylvania dogs and are the best way to bring your pet home quickly if it’s lost.

In October of 2023, Governor Josh Shapiro signed into law bipartisan, commonsense measures to modernize Pennsylvania’s Dog Law to make Pennsylvania a safer, healthier place for dogs in kennels and shelters, and protect communities from stray and dangerous dogs.

“If you love your dog, license your dog,” said Secretary Redding. “It’s simple. The best way to protect your dog is with a license. A license on their collar is clearly visible and increases their chance of being returned home rather than ending up in a shelter.”

“”Pennsylvanians made it clear that they expect dog owners, kennels, breeders, and shelters to be held to high standards,” Redding continued. “They want their communities to be safe from stray and dangerous dogs. They want owners to be held responsible when their dog attacks, and they want unscrupulous breeders to be shut down. These updates to state law have put more dog wardens in our communities, made it easier for people buying or adopting a dog to know their dog needs a license, streamlined licensing for kennel businesses, and clarified requirements for boarding kennel owners. They are more evidence of the Shapiro Administration’s commitment to getting stuff done for Pennsylvanians.”

Dogs must be licensed at the point of adoption or purchase, or at three months, if no transfer of ownership has taken place. The youngest age at which a dog can be purchased or adopted in Pennsylvania is eight weeks.

Dogs must be licensed by January 1, 2025.Licenses can be purchased through Pennsylvania’s county treasurers.

An annual license costs $8.70. Lifetime licenses are available for $52.70 for dogs with permanent identification like a microchip or tattoo. Senior adults and people with disabilities may be eligible for discounted fees of $6.70 for an annual license or $36.70 for a lifetime license.

The cost of a license is far less than the penalty for being caught without one. Owners who fail to license their dogs can face fines of up to $500 for each unlicensed dog.

License fees support animal welfare and public safety. Dog license fees help keep shelters running and support the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement’s vital services to protect dogs and the public.

Since modernizations took effect in January the Bureau of Dog Law Enforcement has:

• Hired 10 new dog wardens and is continuing to fill long-standing vacancies, with the increased funding made available to protect public safety.
• Enforced health and safety regulations, upholding Pennsylvania’s high standards for conditions in kennels by licensing 2,890 operations and conducting more than 5,656 inspections.
• Investigated nearly 535 dog bites, and monitored 702 dogs deemed dangerous by magisterial judges, helping to ensure that dog owners keep dangerous dogs under control.
• Increased dog license sales by $626,373, from December 1, 2023 to November 29, 2024, despite most licenses being issued under the prior fee rate.
• Implemented online renewals and payment for kennel licenses, a measure which has been well received by business owners, with 491 kennel owners — 62 percent of renewals to date — renewing online.

Learn more about how Pennsylvania is working to make communities and dogs safer, as well as the responsibilities of dog ownership and more, here.

Dogs can sniff out all sorts of things, as every dog owner knows. Cracker, my Bedlington terrier, unfailingly finds all the dog owners who have treats in their pockets at the dog park. I was privy to a more, uh, interesting illustration of canine olfactory skill some years ago.

When I fly back to the U.S. after a trip abroad, I’m always so eager to get back to Cracker that I can’t resist scratching and petting the USDA beagles at U.S. Customs, despite the “DO NOT PET” message on their vest. The handler is invariably annoyed and admonishes me. Well, once, the dog got her scratch, then moved to my backpack and sat down – the signal for contraband detection. There was a long-forgotten banana at the bottom. That earned an intensive inspection of all my luggage. (I do not recommend this.)

The ability of dogs to sniff out explosives, illicit drugs, and forbidden produce is well known, but there have also been some successes in getting them to detect various disease states. For example, diabetic-alert dogs are trained to sense certain volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that indicate high or low blood sugar in a diabetic’s breath or sweat. When the dog detects the characteristic odor emitted by the person, he (or she) alerts with a specifically trained behavior such as pawing, sitting, or barking.

There are numerous case reports of dogs spontaneously detecting and calling attention to human cancers, including skin and breast, and in various lab (no pun intended) experiments with human tissues and fluids, dogs have been trained to detect a wide array of cancers.

A fascinating ongoing project is a California-based pilot program to train dogs to detect COVID-19 infections in humans. After two months of training on COVID-19 scent samples in the laboratory, the dogs achieved greater than 95 percent sensitivity (the test’s ability to correctly designate a positive) and specificity (its ability to correctly call a negative) for the detection of the virus. The dogs’ performance in real-world conditions was then tested in the field: 50 visits were conducted at 27 schools from April 1 to May 25, 2022, on 1,558 participants.

The screenings were performed on days when antigen testing was scheduled. The children were lined up standing six feet apart with their backs to two yellow Labradors – Rizzo and Scarlet — led by handlers. One by one, the dogs sniffed each student’s ankles and feet. To indicate a “COVID-positive,” a dog would sit down before moving on to the next person, similar to how the USDA dog signaled having found my illicit banana.

The investigators assessed the dogs’ sensitivity and specificity for COVID-19 infection, using antigen test results as the comparator. If a dog signaled positive and the antigen testing results were negative, the signal was considered a false positive; conversely, if a dog did not signal and the antigen testing results were positive, that was counted as a false negative.

The dogs did very well. In the field studies, their detection sensitivity was 83 percent, with specificity of 90 percent.

The ultimate goal is to have dogs able to perform large-scale, non-invasive COVID screening, with antigen testing necessary only for verification on persons with positive dog screening results. That would significantly reduce the number of antigen tests performed.

Sounds good to me. I’ll bite.

A postscript: With COVID testing in schools now infrequent, Rizzo and Scarlet have turned their noses to detect COVID in California nursing homes.