MONROE — A Brodhead man shot his neighbor’s beagle after he said he saw the dog attack one of his free-range chickens, according to a criminal complaint filed in March.

Eugene R. Scheidegger, 58, faces a felony charge of mistreating an animal causing death. The complaint indicates he also faces a felony charge of theft for carrying the dying dog behind his house and a misdemeanor charge of criminal damage to property for stomping on the animal’s electronic tracking collar to deactivate it.

His initial appearance is June 29 in Green County Circuit Court.

According to the criminal complaint, filed March 17, Green County deputies were dispatched on March 10 to Scheidegger’s property on Ten Eyck Road for a report that he shot his neighbor’s 6-month-old beagle Barley “in the face.”

The neighbor told deputies Scheidegger initially denied knowing anything about the dog and claimed the shots the neighbor heard were from target practice on some cans. Scheidegger then admitted to shooting the dog.

When the neighbor demanded he go get the dog, Scheidegger “went behind the house and returned carrying Barley by one of his hind legs,” according to the investigation. The neighbor “advised that the dog was still breathing.”

Scheidegger told deputies the dog had been on his property and had one of his chickens “pinned down.”

“I came out and hollered at it,” he told police. He then shot at the dog with an old Remington bolt-action rifle. The dog ran off into a nearby wooded area, where Scheidegger shot it again in the head “to put it out of its misery.”

He said he thought it was a stray dog and that he didn’t realize his neighbors had recently gotten a second dog. When he noticed an electronic collar on the dog, he started “freaking out” and smashed it to stop it from tracking the dog’s location.

The beagle had squeezed under his owner’s fence to get out, deputies learned.

Scheidegger told deputies he understood his neighbor was mad and he couldn’t blame him for being mad. He said in hindsight he wished he wouldn’t have shot the dog.

Chicken feathers and trails of blood on the property confirmed Scheidegger’s narrative of what happened, however none of his chickens appeared to deputies to be injured.