By Shereen Siewert

A Wausau man convicted of felony animal mistreatment involving three animals who suffered under his care will avoid prison time as part of a withheld sentence issued last month in Marathon County Circuit Court.

Chase D. Leroy, 24, was charged in May after he threw a poodle puppy so hard that she was no longer able to walk. A vet diagnosed the pup, named Annie, with a broken femoral head, which required surgery, and x-rays showed an additional, older fracture.

A witness also told police Leroy put Annie’s face in the toilet, then flushing while holding the dog’s head inside as punishment.

A second dog, an Aussiedoodle named MooMoo, was also mistreated, police said. Leroy’s former partner told police she saw Moooo’s nose dripping blood from her nose with a bloodshot eye after the dog urinated on the bed sheets. Because MooMoo would urinate inside the home, the witness said, Leroy kept her on a short leash and limited her water intake to one cup of water one or two times daily. The dog was tied up anywhere from an hour to an entire day and at one point the witness discovered MooMoo tied to a pole on a one-foot lead surrounded by a day’s worth of feces and urine on the floor.

The dogs were removed from the home and taken to a vet.

Another allegation surfaced in February when the city’s humane officer responded to a home on South Sixth Avenue in Wausau for a report of an animal left outside in extreme cold conditions. The weather was 4 degrees with a -11 wind chill at the time of the call, according to court documents. Police say the dog was left outdoors for more than two hours, visibly shivering. The defendant was home at the time.

During a Oct. 10 plea and sentencing hearing, Circuit Judge Mike Moran withheld a prison sentence and ordered a four-year probation term with one year in the Marathon County Jail, according to online court records. Leroy is eligible for the electronic monitoring program, which means he could serve some of his sentence from his own home, and he is prohibited from owning or living with any animals.

If Leroy’s probation is revoked, he could face stiffer penalties. The sentencing agreement also applies to charges in a separate, unrelated case that included two counts of battery and a charge of making contact after a domestic abuse arrest.