Kennel Owners Accused In Dog Beheading

Two Cape Cod women arraigned on charges of threatening the owner of a pit bull who found the animal's severed head on her car are now facing additional charges.

Just hours after Rebecca Clancy and Kelly Hayden were released on bail Thursday on charges of intimidating a witness, a Falmouth District Court magistrate issued forgery and uttering charges against them.

Clancy and Hayden, who operate a kennel in Mashpee on Cape Cod, were arrested Wednesday after a 22-year-old woman told police they threatened her after she found her dog's severed head in a tin on her car last week. They pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges of threatening, intimidating a witness and assault related to that incident.

Hayden and Clancy, both 24, are suspects in the beheading of the woman's dog, according to court records. They have not been charged in the dog's killing.

The dog owner told police that Clancy and Hayden were supposed to be watching her dogs — Nitrous and Nala — last week when Nitrous's severed head turned up on the hood of her car. She said Clancy had threatened to kill her dogs if she didn't pay $15,000 dollars for damage she had caused to Clancy's Jaguar when she crashed the borrowed car in November.

First Assistant District Attorney Brian Glenny said Clancy and Hayden are charged with attempting to intimidate the woman because she is a witness against them in the investigation into her dog's death.

Clancy told the Cape Cod Times shortly before her arrest that she and Hayden did not kill the dog. Clancy said the people speaking against her and Hayden are rival dog breeders.

Brett Sanidas, an attorney who represented both women at their arraignment, did not immediately return a call seeking comment Thursday.

Mashpee officials told the newspaper the two women have been running an unlicensed kennel for years. Police investigated them after receiving complaints from people who said they sent the women money but did not get the puppy they were promised.

The new charges are the result of a veterinarian's report to police that in 2003 the pair shipped a sick dog to a customer in Tucson, Ariz., and forged the veterinarian's signature on a health certificate.

The vet also alleged Clancy and Hayden falsely claimed the dog had been given a three-year rabies vaccine. When the dog arrived in Arizona, it was so sick it had to be euthanized.