A man in Everett has been charged by Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson for 7 counts of first degree animal cruelty and one count of first degree malicious mischief.

A 34-year-old Snohomish County resident, Blayne M. Perez, has been accused of murdering animals and displaying them visibly in his backyard. An affidavit filed with the Snohomish County Superior Court says that Mr. Perez had “dead crows and squirrels gruesomely nailed or screwed into the back of a shed” located on his property in Everett. A neighbor even provided the State with photographic evidence of Mr. Perez standing on his property aiming a long-barreled gun at the sky and shooting down birds. Other neighborhood residents reportedly also witnessed that the defendant had “shoved sticks down the throats” of live birds that he had shot down “in order to display them.”

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A second person witnessed Mr. Perez had pointed what was presumed to be a BB gun into the sky to shoot down crows on his property. This witness happened to be a plain-clothes officer for the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife, who was doing an investigation on Mr. Perez. The investigation turned up decapitated crows and decaying song birds, box traps that Perez had set up as live bait for birds, and evidence showed that a golf club on the property had been used to impale a crow to the roof of the shed.

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Mr. Perez is also accused of skinning squirrels and rabbits with a knife in a public park and doing a drive-by in order to murder his neighbor’s cat. The cat was reportedly shot by Mr. Perez and it had to be rushed to the vet and have extensive surgery to save its life.

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Mr. Perez is also charged with not having a Washington state gaming license (hunting for wild birds, RCW 77.15.400) when he shot the crows on his property and for firing off an air gun in the city limits (Everett Municipal Code Chapter 9.86).

 

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AG Ferguson and his Assistant AGs from the Environmental Protection Division, Scott Halloran and Kelsey Force, will serve as state prosecutors on behalf of Washington. They filed a petition affidavit with the Snohomish County Superior Court to ask for justice against Mr. Perez, who faces up to 45 years in prison for the animal cruelty allegations.

The affidavit says that “one Department of Fish and Wildlife officer described Mr. Perez’ backyard was “the most disturbing and grotesque scene that he had encountered in his entire career.”

Per the affidavit, Mr. Perez says that he resorted to using air guns to get rid of “pests that were f***ing up my sh**.” He claims in his defense that he decided to use the dead bird carcasses as a “scarecrow” effect to ward off any other birds to his property, and that the box trap was “for an opposum.

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You can read the entire affidavit here.

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