Suspect in Dog’s Death Blames Bark, Police Say : Cruelty: Disabled man told investigators he muzzled the animal to quiet it, not to kill it.

FULLERTON —  A man who told police that a dog’s chronic barking prompted him to tape the animal’s muzzle shut was charged Monday with misdemeanor cruelty to animals in connection with the golden retriever’s death last month.

Lt. Jeff Roop of the Fullerton Police Department said Robert Steven Sakall, 39, told investigators that he taped the dog’s muzzle shut after listening to it bark for long periods of time. Sakall said he has been largely housebound since injuring his back in a work-related accident three years ago.

“He told us that he didn’t want to kill the dog, he just wanted to shut it up,” Roop said. “He wasn’t aware that the dog would die from taping his mouth shut.”

A dog controls his body temperature by panting to release heat. With his muzzle taped closed, Dylan, a 5-year-old dog, died June 27 when his temperature climbed to 108 degrees, a veterinarian has said.

The Orange County District Attorney’s office Monday charged Sakall with one count of cruelty to animals after Fullerton police identified him during a monthlong, door-to-door investigation.

The death outraged residents, according to Police Chief Patrick McKinley, and was made a priority investigation. “I told those guys, ‘I want you to handle this like a homicide,’ ” McKinley said.

In an interview, Sakall would not discuss his guilt or innocence, but suggested that the dog’s barking was a “habitual problem.” He said his situation might best be summed up with the question: “Was he pushed to the breaking point?”

“I’m sure everybody would agree that the dog was a habitual problem,” Sakall said. “That dog just sat at one spot and was barking at the house,” Sakall said. “They would just chain the dog and then take off for days at a time. If anyone was cruel to the dog, it would seem that the owners were.

“You might say that someone went to contact the owner, and in frustration, something might have happened,” Sakall said.

Dylan’s owners, Jeff and Debbie Hutchison, who live about half a block from Sakall, said Dylan wasn’t known as a barker.

“He’s not owning up to the responsibility and admitting that he made a mistake,” Jeff Hutchison said. “Our dog was a family pet. It was very well taken care of.”

Hutchison said his daughter and son are still upset by the death of their pet. “My son still hasn’t gripped it,” he said. “He still thinks the dog is coming back.”

Hutchison suggested that Dylan may have been mistaken for a German shepherd in an adjoining house that does bark frequently, he said. Another neighbor, Brian Hodges, agreed. “I think (Sakall) blamed all the barking on one dog,” Hodges said. “There were actually two.”

The Hutchisons arrived home from church to find the dog huddled under a tree, with its mouth bound shut. Dylan died only minutes after being taken to a nearby animal hospital.

Jeff Hutchison, who lives with his family in the 1600 block of Avolencia Drive, said he received frequent, anonymous phone complaints about Dylan, sometimes even when the dog was standing quietly by his side.

In an interview, Sakall acknowledged telephoning the Hutchisons. He said he took the family’s phone number off the dog’s tag.

“When the dog would start barking, I would call up and say, ‘Hey your dog is barking,’ ” Sakall said. The dog barked for as long as four hours at a time, Sakall contended, and his owners did not respond to complaints.

Since rupturing two disks in his back in a 1990 work accident, Sakall has stayed home, leaving only to see his doctors, he said. The barking worsens chronic headaches that stem from nerve damage, he said.

Neighbors differed over whether the Hutchisons cared for the animal. Hodges said the Hutchisons took good care of Dylan. “The whole family loved him,” he said.

But neighbor Una Touw said she felt the dog was neglected. “I felt sorry for the dog,” Touw said. “It was like nobody paid any attention to it. I never saw anybody out there touching the dog, or petting it or anything.”

Sakall could be sentenced to one year in jail and fined $20,000 if found guilty. He is scheduled to be arraigned in Orange County Municipal Court on Aug. 9.