Animal cruelty charges to be dropped if bill paid

Pend Oreille County authorities are planning to dismiss animal cruelty charges against a Cusick-area man who allegedly failed to get veterinary care for a severely injured dog or to euthanize the suffering animal.

Deputy Prosecutor Greg Hicks said dismissal of the second-degree animal cruelty charge against Daniel R. Nurnberg, 53, would be based on Nurnberg's promise to reimburse the Sheriff's Office for more than $800 worth of veterinary care.

Nurnberg's shepherd-chow mix was blinded and badly battered earlier this month when it apparently pulled its restraining chain, which was hooked to log, across the Pend Oreille Valley Railroad tracks. A passing train ran over the chain and flailed the dog, fracturing its skull, breaking several ribs and causing the dog's eyes to pop out of their sockets.

"It was a pretty gruesome sight, I'll tell you," Sheriff Jerry Weeks said.

Weeks and other officers found the dog a day after it was injured, while executing a search warrant for a suspected methamphetamine lab. Officers didn't find a meth lab, but found two marijuana plants.

Nurnberg and his son, Jason D. Nurnberg, 25, were arrested on suspicion of manufacturing marijuana, but Hicks said no decision has been made yet on whether to file formal drug charges against the men. The father was released without bail, while the son was sent to Eastern State Hospital for a mental evaluation.

Hicks said Daniel Nurnberg told authorities he was too attached to the injured dog to dispatch it, but he didn't want to pay for veterinary care because he was convinced the animal was going to die anyway. But the dog recovered after medical care, and was returned to Nurnberg's custody.

Weeks and Hicks said there was no evidence the dog was mistreated before the train hit it, although restraining a dog with a sort of ball-and-chain device was a poor idea.

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