A 50-year-old man was sentenced to two to four years in state prison after pleading guilty on Wednesday, March 23, 2022, to killing his dog last year and then burning it on a barbecue grill.
Nikolay Lukyanchikov, of Northampton Township, entered an open guilty plea to counts of receiving stolen property, aggravated cruelty to animals, possessing an instrument of crime, cruelty to animals and recklessly endangering another person.
Calling his actions offensive, Common Pleas Judge Raymond F. McHugh sentenced Lukyanchikov to spend up to four years in state prison and also ordered that he could never own, possess, or care for any animals of any kind.
The dog, an 8-year-old greyhound named Bonanza, was rescued in February 2019 from a Macau, China, racetrack that animal rights activists described as “the worst hellhole for racing greyhounds in the world.”