Not only is it that the guy did this, but it's in the way he did it. Like right in front of the owner with a home made tool?
That 68 year old wouldn't have made it back to his house without a trip to the hospital first.
I'll play the devil's advocate here and pose a couple of questions...
1) Let's assume that the owner takes the dog outside, lets it run around chasing after cars, barking, chasing after people and whatnot, but keeps it in the house otherwise. If the guy finally snapped after 6 years of that, it's not like he had the opportunity to do it without the owner around (without committing bne)
2) Ok, now that he decided he had no other choice but to do it and do it in front of the owner, how would you have done it in his shoes? Discharging firearms within city limits is illegal (assuming he has any) and those municipal bylaws can also include bows and crossbows. Poison can kill an innocent target. What's left other than a homemade weapon?
By the way, I'm not condoning his actions, but your argument left some questions unanswered and they should be asked. While I generally disagree with braveheart almost as much as I disagree with turbo, he has a point here. If you take away the media circus, a person wouldn't just get up, decide to craft a spear and go kill a random dog without
some reason and based on the story, the owner sounds like the irresponsible type (you can let your dog off the leash, but only under the following circumstances:
1) On your property, no possibility of escaping
2) In a park that's been designated for that
3) In the bush
While he deserves some punishment, there are 2 sides to this story and the media circus is only showing one.
P.S. I'm a former (died of old age) dog-owner and I generally love all animals other than:
1) Raccoons (the shovel guy should get a medal)
2) Insects
3) Rodents (that includes rabbits and squirrels)