Gisele Paris Pittsburgh - A 57-year-old resident of Spring Hill charged with stealing and later euthanizing a cancer patient's dog is set to be sentenced in on Mar. 12.
Gisele Paris was found guilty of theft, animal cruelty and receiving stolen property. Reports indicate that she could be sentenced to between two to ten years in jail.
According to Pittsburgh Police, Gisele Paris stole an 8-year-old Siberian husky on Thanksgiving Day in 2012. She claims to have thought that the dog was abandoned after finding it in a vacant lot. She says the dog was tired and hungry when he found it. But officials say the dog belonged to 54-year-old Mark Boehler, who lives in the same neighborhood. Boehler, who lives in a fenced property, says the dog was stolen from his yard.
After taking the dog home, Gisele Paris noticed that it had a strange growth on its back and took the dog (who was named Thor by Boehler) to the veterinarian for a checkup. She reportedly later decided to have the dog euthanized based on the advice of a veterinarian, after she failed to provide about $600 needed to cover the cost of an operation to remove the tumor on its back.
But during the highly publicized trial, prosecutors argued that Paris' decision to euthanize Thor was made after she realized that the dog was not abandoned after all. Reports indicate that when Gisele Paris took Thor to the Penn Animal Hospital to have the tumor on its back looked at, she was informed by a veterinarian that the dog had been reported missing by its owner. Nonetheless, she went ahead with her plan to have it put down.
Boehler, who is battling stage 3 esophageal cancer, says the disappearance of Thor, which he described as being akin to a family member, was a heavy blow to him. "He was everything I had," he said.
Although Boehler tried to make the court force Paris to return Thor's body to him, the Judge Anthony M. Mariani threw out the request. The prosecution also failed to secure a request to have Gisele Paris held in the Allegheny County Jail until her sentencing hearing. Instead, the court put her on house arrest after taking the fact that she had her own pets to care for under consideration.
Meanwhile, Barry Paris, a cousin of the accused, says Gisele is an honest animal-lover. According to him, the only reason Gisele Paris took the dog into her custody is because she was convinced that he had been abandoned. He noted that he was being painted as a villain when she was only trying to help.
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