Case against man who shot Oak Orchard dog moves to Superior Court

The man charged with shooting a dog May 31 in Oak Orchard waived his preliminary hearing July 8 in Sussex County Court of Common Pleas.

Herbert Manley, 69, of Dover faces a felony charge of cruelly or unnecessarily killing an animal after he shot a chocolate Labrador Retriever that later died in a Salisbury pet emergency room.

A court date in Sussex Superior Court has not yet been posted.

Witnesses and court documents state that Manley was in the area of Delaware and Oak Orchard avenues at 8:50 p.m. and had walked up and down Oak Orchard Avenue several times before he shot the dog, known as Tank.

Manley told an officer with the Office of Animal Welfare that the dog charged at him, and was foaming at the mouth, records state. 

“Herbert felt threaten[ed] and felt if he did not shoot the dog it would have jumped up on him. He shot one round at the dog’s head. He said he did not want to kill the dog, just injure it to protect himself,” court documents state.

Witnesses to the shooting said the dog was not aggressive and did nothing to provoke the shooting.

In a previous interview, Oak Orchard resident Charles Drummond said there was some commotion in the area about 8 p.m. when the dog got out of his yard. Drummond said Manley was in the area looking at a home, and Manley had walked up and down the street three times before taking out a gun and shooting the dog.

“The dog was on his [own] property, and he was backing up,” Drummond said.

The dog’s owner, Jim Sekcienski, said he heard a pop, then someone said his dog had been shot.

“I went up to him face-to-face,” he said. “He was still holding his gun, and he said Tank was trying to bite him.”

A vigil for Tank was held June 19 on The Circle in Georgetown.