California Man Charged with Killing 81 Animals in Pet Massacre

Vicente Arroyo, 39, made his first court appearance Thursday after Monterey County sheriff’s deputies arrested him earlier in the week for allegedly using multiple guns to shoot animals housed in pens and cages on a plot of land in the small community of Prunedale.

The owners of the animals do not want to be identified or speak to the media, Monterey County Sheriff’s Commander Andres Rosas told The Associated Press on Friday.

“I went out there and it was quite a traumatic scene. These were people’s pets,” he said.

One of the miniature horses belonged to the owner of the lot where the animals were housed, and the other 80 belonged to someone who rented the land to house their pets, Rosas said.

According to court records, Arroyo was accused of killing 14 goats, nine chickens, seven ducks, five rabbits, one guinea pig and 33 parakeets and cockatiels. Arroyo is also accused of killing a pony named Lucky and two miniature horses named Estrella and Princessa, KSBW-TV reported.

Some animals survived the hours-long shooting but had to be euthanized because of the severity of their injuries, Rosas said.

Rosas said Arroyo was living in a trailer in a vineyard near the lot where the animals were kept, and a motive was not yet known.

His attorney, William Pernik, said that after speaking with Arroyo and his family, he became concerned about his client’s mental competency and asked the judge for a mental health evaluation.

“We’re dealing with a person who has very serious charges and who doesn’t seem to be in the right frame of mind to understand the proceedings against him,” Pernik said.

Penik said Arroyo’s family reached out to various agencies around the country to get help for him, but that “unfortunately, he didn’t get that mental health help in time before this tragic incident.”

The judge ordered Arroyo, who is being held on $1 million bail, to undergo a mental evaluation.

The court will get an update on Arroyo’s mental state in two weeks, Pernik said.

Authorities received several 911 calls around 3:25 a.m. Tuesday reporting shots fired in Prunedale, an incorporated community about 8 miles (13 kilometers) from the city of Salinas, he said.

Deputies arriving at the scene heard gunshots, and a shelter in place was ordered for a five-mile radius.

Monterey County SWAT members were dispatched, and the sheriff’s office also requested drone assistance from the nearby Fire Department and the Gonzales Police Department, Rosas said.

Officers in an armored vehicle arrested Arroyo without incident, he said.

Deputies found a crashed pickup truck and recovered eight firearms, including long rifles, shotguns and handguns, at the scene. After executing a search warrant on his trailer, they found seven other firearms, including an illegal AK-47 assault rifle, two ghost pistols and about 2,000 rounds of ammunition of various calibers, Rosas said.

Prosecutors have charged Arroyo with dozens of counts involving animal cruelty, willful discharge of a firearm with gross negligence, unlawful possession of an assault weapon, vandalism, drug possession and criminal threats and terrorizing while in possession of a firearm as a felon.

“This is obviously the most horrific case of animal cruelty that we’ve ever seen in this county, I’m sure,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Berkley Brannon told KSBW-TV after Thursday’s hearing.

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