Bucks man charged with poisoning, repeatedly shooting his dog, leaving it for dead

Police found the wounded dog July 24 on the grounds of Doylestown Country Club, alive but suffering.

"Kane," a 10-year-old American bulldog, had been shot at least 32 times with a .22-caliber pellet gun. Scattered on the ground near the animal were several hot dogs that appeared to have been injected with insecticide.

The dog was euthanized shortly afterward.

On Tuesday, Kane's owner - the former superintendent of the country club's golf course - was arraigned on animal-cruelty charges.

Paul Bevan-Xenelis, 39, is accused of poisoning and repeatedly shooting the dog he had adopted in March as a pet for his family of four.

Doylestown Township Police Chief Stephen White called the circumstances "mind-boggling."

"I don't know how that kind of cruelty gets into somebody, but this is not a mistake," White said. "When you shoot a dog 30-plus times and then leave the dog to suffer, it's just nuts."

Bevan-Xenelis, 39, told police that the dog had become aggressive and had bitten a coworker. He said he had shot the dog only once and believed he had killed it.

But a postmortem examination by a veterinarian found multiple pellet wounds.

The Richland Township resident said nothing after his release on 10 percent of his $30,000 bail. His defense attorney, David Knight, said he could not yet explain what had happened.

"He's a little upset," Knight said of Bevan-Xenelis. "This is all new to him. He's never had a problem with the law."

Bevan-Xenelis was fired last week from the country club where he had worked for more than 10 years. He is married with young children, ages 9 and 6.

Police had been summoned to the club at 9 a.m. July 24 and found Kane lying beneath a fence behind a maintenance building.

"The dog was suffering and extremely badly injured," said Anne Irwin, executive director of the Bucks County SPCA, where Kane had been taken to be euthanized.

Police confirmed that Kane had bitten a country club employee two days earlier, requiring hospital treatment.

White said it appeared that Bevan-Xenelis had been keeping the dog at work with him because he did not want it around his family.

Kane had been a gentle, child-friendly pet when given up for adoption early this year by a family who had lost their home, said Kristen Schlichtig, executive director of All4Paws Rescue Inc. of Chester Springs.

"It was a very nice dog," Schlichtig said. "But who knows what he had been doing to Kane if he was keeping him in a hot garage at that country club."

Bevan-Xenelis had been carefully screened before adopting Kane, she said.

Two friends of the rescue agency, one of them a neighbor of his, had vouched for Bevan-Xenelis. He underwent several reference and background checks, "and everything came up clean," Schlichtig said.

"He had young kids, he was a family man, we spent time with him. He showed up with toys for Kane. He left a vacation early, he was so excited," she said.

Bevan-Xenelis signed a contract pledging to house the dog inside his home, Schlichtig said, and he agreed in writing to return Kane if any problems developed.

"This has been a nightmare," she said. "We did nothing wrong, but I have to live with the fact that I handed this guy the leash. I'm not even sleeping."

The attorney for Paul Bevan-Xenelis talks about the case at www.philly.com/davidknightEndText