Hunter accused of killing 2 pet dogs in Ridgefield has been sentenced to probation

WARNING: Some of the details in this story are graphic and you might find them disturbing.

A hunter from New York has been sentenced to probation after allegedly killing two dogs in Ridgefield in November of 2022.

Court officials told NBC Connecticut that Michael Konschak, 61, of Carmel, New York, pleaded guilty under the Alford Doctrine to one count of animal cruelty and one count of interfering with an officer, and was sentenced to a total of three years probation.

Konschak allegedly killed two pet German Shepherds belonging to a Ridgefield family while hunting with a crossbow, then skinning the animals to keep their pelts, according to an arrest warrant application.

He was previously denied accelerated rehabilitation, a diversion program for first-time offenders.

Konschak told police he thought the dogs were coyotes or coydogs and one had been moving aggressively toward him after he killed the other, according to the arrest warrant application.

The investigation started on Nov. 18 when the Ridgefield animal control officer received reports of two missing dogs.

The two German Shepherds, a 9-year-old female named Leiben, and a 9-year-old male named Cimo, had escaped from the family’s yard in Ridgefield after a bear damaged the chain link fence.

The family had been searching for the dogs for weeks with help from Ridgefield animal control, organized searches and social media only to get the bad news about what happened to their pets.

Another family member received a text on Dec. 12 from someone who said they had information about the lost dogs and the person sent along a photo of the deceased pets, according to the arrest warrant application.

According to the arrest warrant application, Konschak had contacted a professional taxidermist on Nov. 18 and said he had two coyotes he wanted to have tanned and showed up at his studio. Upon seeing the animals, the taxidermist said he was 98% sure they were not coyotes and it looked like they might be German Shepherds.

The taxidermist told police he made up an excuse that he could not store the animals and hoped that Konschak would leave and not come back.

On Jan. 5, Konschak and his lawyer met with police and Konschak told investigators that he had been deer hunting on Nov. 18 on Topcrest Lane in Ridgefield, where he had permission to hunt and had been hunting for nearly 30 years, and saw what he thought were two coyotes chasing deer.

He said he shot one with a crossbow that had a scope. Then the other started heading toward Konschak, with “its head down and bearing teeth” and he tried to wave it off, but he killed it when it continued to move toward him, according to the arrest warrant application.

After killing the two dogs, Konschak used a sled to take them back to his home in New York and contacted a taxidermist before he arrived to have the hides tanned because of their unique color, according to the arrest warrant application, but the taxidermist said he did not have room to store the animals, so Konschak skinned them himself.

Konschak also told police that he discarded the pelts because he did not like the way they came out, but police said they learned he had tossed the pelts after learning that police launched an investigation.

Police said the investigation was turned over to the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection once they determined that the dogs were reported to have been killed.

Konschak had been charged with tampering with evidence, forgery, interfering with an officer, archery hunting regulations and violating wild game hunting regulations.