An unemployed, coke-abusing dog-bludgeoner was sentenced yesterday to nine months in prison by a Manhattan Supreme Court judge who called the man’s 2005 murder of his pet “unimaginable.”
Oleg Zhdanov, 35, admitted repeatedly kicking the 5-month-old Lab mix, named Lelu, and flinging her against the walls of his West 56th Street apartment.
“What do you do when somebody kills a pet – a pet that doesn’t have an eternal future?” Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Edward McLaughlin asked.
“A pet whose only opportunity for fun and frolic is here and now?”
Convicted dog-killers typically get 1-year sentences, but McLaughlin noted that “there is no doubt [Zhdanov] has some mental condition that is different than the rest of us.”
Zhdanov had been given the chance to avoid jail entirely, but was found guilty two weeks ago of violating probation by sharing his apartment with two cats. He’d been barred, as a condition of his probation, from living with any pet other than fish.