Alleged Dog Stabber in Court While Dog Continues to Recover

While the man accused of stabbing his dog 29 times made a brief appearance in Meriden Superior Court Monday, the pit mix named Princess is continuing to improve at a North Haven veterinary hospital.

Alexander Bernard is accused of stabbing the dog because, he told police, his family didn't like her. He was at a home at 1091 Dixwell Ave. when the May 25 incident occurred. 

The dog, dubbed Princess, was rushed to the North Haven Animal Hospital on Washington Avenue in North Haven, where she received emergency treatment for her injuries.

See our prior coverage of the incident , and .

On Monday, Princess was still at the hospital but is doing well, an employee there reports. She still have an infection she is being treated for, but her spirits are high and she still has a loving personality, hospital employees said.

Bernard's case was continued to June 27, and he can expect company on that day, as well as all his future court dates, animal rights activists said Monday, several of whom were at the courthouse for Bernard's appearance.

"I will be there front and center," said East Hartford resident Donna Ploss, who is active in the fight for tougher animal cruelty laws. She was there with, among others, members of Connecticut Votes for Animals.

On Monday Ploss was at the Meriden courthouse wearing her animal rights T-shirt that says, "Abusing animals -- go to jail."

"I am going to be this man's worst nightmare," Ploss said. "I'll bet he felt like a man with that knife, and while he was stabbing this dog 29 times I'll bet she was looking up at him wagging her tail as if to say, 'what did I do wrong?'"

Animal abuse such as this will continue until the courts get tougher on the offenders, she said. 

"I think it should be a felony with mandatory jail time," she said. Bernard is charged with one misdemeanor count of animal cruelty. Felony charges carry prison terms of more than a year while misdemeanor counts carry a potential sentence of only up to a year in jail.

"Animal cruelty needs to be taken more seriously, and until that happens, animal abuse is not going to go away," Ploss said. "If he could do this to an eight-month-old dog, could he could do it to an eight-month-old child?"