Man shot neighbor’s dog, drug dead corpse to his house

A 37-year-old Hoschton man was arrested last week after he admitted to shooting a neighbor’s dog and dragging the animal’s corpse across the street to his property.

Michael David Fain, 37, 175 Becca Drive, Hoschton, is charged with one misdemeanor count of reckless conduct and one misdemeanor count of cruelty to animals.

According to a Jackson County Sheriff’s Office incident report, a deputy was dispatched to a Ryan Way residence on Nov. 4 after an elderly resident said that he discovered that someone had shot several times into his property on Oct. 31 while he was at a doctor’s appointment. The complainant said he had glass bottles handing from a tree in the rear of his property and he noticed some of the bottles had been shot. He also discovered two bullet holes in his tin building behind house, and bullet holes through the rear of his house going through the vinyl. The deputy took note of the bullet holes and took a statement from a witness who said he saw the accused fire rounds from a rifle at dogs and shot toward the complainant’s residence.
Fain told the deputy that on Halloween, two dogs came onto his porch and attacked his cat so he chased the dogs away.
Later on, the dogs returned and reportedly attacked his cat again. At that time, he said he shot his 22-caliber riddle at the dogs from his property. When the deputy asked him if he remembered hitting the glass bottle hanging from the tree, he said he did. However, the deputy could not visually see the tree with the hanging bottles until he crossed over two other residences in between the complainants and the residence of the accused. Asked if he knew if he hit any dogs, Fain said he did. The deputy followed Fain behind his residence behind a chain link fence where a black and brown German Shepherd was laying dead in the grass. Fain said that the other dog was a “large black dog with a gray snout.”

They walked back to their residence where the officer asked about the rifle. Fain removed the rifle from his house and gave it to the deputy, who took photos. Other witnesses told the deputy that fliers were posted up about a missing German shepherd.

After Fain was arrested and taken to the Jackson County jail, the owners of the deceased dog were brought over to Fain’s residence to remove it and take it back to their property for burial.