Philadelphia, PA

Ridley Township Detective Sgt. Scott Willoughby thought he had seen it all during his 18 years on the force.
Then he met James Jones.

The 46-year-old township resident, who is being held at the Delaware County Prison on animal-cruelty charges, stabbed his dog “Baby” to death Sunday night with a 30-inch samurai-style sword, according to authorities.

His wife, Pamela, said he had been threatening to kill the 3-year-old American bulldog mix for several weeks, and that he finally made good on that threat in their Holland Street home.

She had rescued the dog from the Delaware County SPCA when it was a puppy, but she couldn’t save Baby from her husband.

“She wasn’t going to bite him, wasn’t going to attack him,” Pamela Jones said of the family dog. “He stabbed her in her heart and there was blood squirting all over the place, then all four of her legs got wobbly and she fell to the floor and she bled to death on the floor. Her tongue came out of her mouth and she was gone. I couldn’t even help her.”

Police say Jones had accidentally struck the dog in the head, causing it to growl at him, and that he became enraged.

“You see a lot of crazy things,” said Willoughby, a former K-9 officer, “but to kill your own dog with a sword? Jesus Christ!”

Willoughby said that the dog was sitting upright when it was stabbed and the blade went 8 inches into its chest.

“And then he stabbed it again,” he said.

Jones was arraigned Monday by Senior Magisterial District Judge Leonard McDevitt Sr. and was transported to the George W. Hill Correctional Facility after he failed to post 10 percent of $25,000 bail.

Pamela Jones, who has been married to James for 15 years, immediately sought a temporary protection-from-abuse order, and it was granted Monday while her husband was still in custody of Ridley police. She plans to get a divorce because of the incident.

Police confiscated 20 daggers and 10 swords from the house.

“It could have been me,” she said of the stabbing. “I’m going to serve him the [divorce] papers when I have to go testify against him in court.”

Meanwhile, two sisters of James Jones said he is an animal lover - not just dogs, but iguanas, lizards, ferrets and other creatures - who was born and raised in Chester and served in the Army as a young man.

“He loved animals. I don’t believe it,” said one sister, Frances Jones.

“It’s very sad if he did it,” said another sister, Janet Brown. “What was going through his mind?”