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Article Archive > SPCA says man hammered nails into neighbor's fence to hurt dogs SPCA says man hammered nails into neighbor's fence to hurt dogs MIDDLETOWN - A Swartzel Drive man is charged with hammering rows of 3-inch-long nails into his next-door neighbor's wooden picket fence so the neighbor's three German shepherds would cut themselves when running along the fence, officials said. It is the second time David Lench, 50, is charged with animal cruelty, said Victor "Buddy'' Amato, police chief of the Monmouth County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The owner of the dogs, Michael Flynn, alerted Amato at 9 a.m. Sunday after one of the dogs came inside with blood and puncture wounds on its face. After following the blood trail to the fence and seeing the nails, Flynn called Amato. Amato rendered first aid to the injured dog, he said. Amato said Flynn's teenage son had seen Lench hammering on the fence during the second week of January and asked Lench what he was doing. Lench told the teen he was fixing the fence, Amato said. The teen did not investigate further as the section of fencing was behind bushes and he had assumed there was something being repaired. The nails had been in place until Sunday. Lench was charged in May by Amato for leaving mothballs along the same section of fencing, and pleaded guilty to trying to harm two dogs, a puppy and an adult dog, Amato said. He was given a $1,000 fine in May. Lench hammered two nails into each picket in an 8- to 10-foot section of fencing, which is owned by Flynn, Amato said. On Sunday, Amato and Flynn hammered the nails down flat against the fence to protect the dogs from any more injuries. Amato said he taped the summonses to the door of Lench's house Sunday morning and they remained there today. Lench is scheduled to appear in Municipal Court at 9 a.m. Feb. 25.
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