Terence James Mcardle Arrested After Dog Bear Killed in Eugene

An eight year old dog named Bear was killed during a confrontation at a Eugene, Oregon, camp on October 10, according to local reporting citing police. KOIN identifies the man arrested as Terence James Mcardle, 46, and reports an arrest for first degree animal abuse.

The Register Guard identifies the dog as Bear and attributes the incident account to Eugene Police Department spokesperson Chelsea Deffenbacher. Officers responded at about 10:40 p.m. to a camp near a bike path in the 2000 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

Different accounts of the confrontation

According to the Register Guard’s report, Bear’s owner told police the dog was protecting him after the man entered the camp yelling and behaving aggressively. Police alleged that the suspect instigated a confrontation with someone whose dog he knew to be protective.

Mcardle told officers the dog lunged at him and tried to bite him, KOIN reported. Officers also noted puncture marks in his pant leg. The reports do not describe an adjudicated finding about those competing accounts.

Arrest on Ferry Street Bridge

Police found the suspect on Ferry Street Bridge after he left the camp, according to the Register Guard. Its report says he knelt and put his hands to his head when officers approached. The knife police said was used in the stabbing was beside him.

KOIN reported that Mcardle was taken to Lane County Jail and also had an outstanding warrant. It did not identify the basis of that warrant.

The Register Guard’s October 12 account withheld the suspect’s name under its policy of not naming people before arraignment. KOIN’s later report named him. Neither report reviewed for this article supplies a court outcome or a conviction. The first degree animal abuse allegation remains to be tested in court.

How we reported this: We compared KOIN and the Register Guard, which both attribute the encounter to Eugene police. We have not obtained the police report or court filing, or interviewed Bear’s owner. Arrest is the verified procedural stage reported here.