INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — A man who deputies said fatally shot his neighbor’s hog at least three times with an AR-15 after catching the swine rummaging through his trash, was jailed.
“I looked at the hog and located what appeared to be three gunshot wounds,” the arresting deputy said in the report. “One in the hip, one in the side of the belly and one in the side rib cage area.”
Mitchell Alan Gens
PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY INDIAN RIVER COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE
Mitchell Alan Gens, 42, of 138th Avenue in unincorporated Fellsmere, was charged with animal cruelty. Gens was released Sunday from the Indian River County Jail on $1,000 bond.
Indian River County sheriff’s deputies responded to reports of the hog struck by gunfire last Friday at a residence on 138th Avenue. Deputies did not give a description of the hog’s size.
A man and his roommate told deputies that Gens chased their brown breeding hog from his residence back to their property, reports show.
Gens told the man he was going to kill the swine, then the man told Gens to shoot the animal, deputies said. When the hog ran back to its pen on the west side of the residence, Gens opened fire on the hog multiple times with an AR-15-style rifle, reports show.
“(Gens) shot the hog multiple times in the hip and belly area causing the hog to suffer before its death,” the deputy said in the report.
The man told deputies Gens also shot the hog in the foot the previous night. Deputies spoke with Gens, who said the swine had gotten into his trash several times in the past.
Gens told deputies he “was allowed to shoot nuisance animals,” reports show.
Deputies arrested Gens and booked him into the county jail. Gens has an arraignment at 10 a.m. Feb. 1, 2024, court records show.