Animals, Bizarre, Criminal law

California Man Twice Throws Dog Into Ravine . . . Dog Survives While Man Goes To Jail

download-1Police and the public have searched for a man shown on a video throwing a dog not once but twice into a ravine.  The man was eventually identified as Andres Spancky Raya, 21, and he was charged with animal cruelty.  Fortunately, the pit bull — known as Mary Jane — survived with injuries but was eventually adopted by a family.  As for Raya, he is heading to prison for five years.

Raya pleaded no contest to both felony animal cruelty charge and residential burglary.  He has a criminal history and was on probation for a felony count of grand theft of personal property and a felony hit-and-run driving resulting in injury to another person. In other words, this was not a departure for Raya in his lack of humanity or decency.

The surveillance video captured Raya tossing Mary Jane into the ravine on September 26th.  He then returned two days later and found the dog and threw her again into the ravine. It is amazing that the dog survived the drop. The ravine is 145 feet deep.

The dog is now named Hera Grrl by her new owners.

Since he was looking at over three years for the animal cruelty charge, Raya received some benefit from the plea with a two-year sentence.  He was also sentenced to five years on a burglary count.

35 thoughts on “California Man Twice Throws Dog Into Ravine . . . Dog Survives While Man Goes To Jail”

  1. Can’t help but notice. . .many people posting comments seem to be willing to throw the key away with regard to this guy. No punishment seems to be too harsh or inconceivable. Can’t say that I disagree; however, in these articles, we routinely read of man’s inhumanity to man, where the victim or victims are permanently maimed or actually lose their lives, and the comments that follow those posts, regarding the potential fate of the perpetrator and/or perpetrators, seem to be far milder than the ones following an article, such as this one, which details cruelty to an animal. Fascinating how cruelty and violence against an animal evokes far more passion, as evidenced by the comments, than when the victim is human.

  2. I’m old, OK…seems to me that the general hordes of Andres Spancky Raya types are a bad tell.

  3. That is ONE thing Calif does right. They take animal abuse seriously and hand down real prison time. Unfortunately this loser is young enough that he’ll get out in a few years and eventually have children. Given his complete lack of empathy I would be concerned about how he treats family members. Sometimes when pit bulls aren’t fighters, on whom the owners can place bets and make money, they will be killed or even used as training bait for the more vicious dogs. If he is an illegal or “Dreamer,” deport his worthless ass. Otherwise, I hope he is on probation for a very long time so his P.O. can monitor him.

      1. billmcwilliams – sadly, after his criminal indictment came out just before the election, Sheriff Joe was defeated. However, Tent City still exists.

  4. I’m watching the Iowa v Iowa State game and wondered, where is Steve Groen? He played football for the Hawkeyes. We differ politically but that is small potatoes. I like the guy. Steve..give us a shout out. Your Hawkeyes are now down 24-21 near the end of 3rd quarter.

    1. Dang it! I just checked the score. I betcha the Cyclones lost it late in the 4th quarter. We have a tendency to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Good game, I bet, since it was so close!

  5. Stereotypical LA County: Hispanic male with pit bull. US dog shelters are full of pitties and pit mixes, most
    abused, many past the point of being rehabilitated, rescued from degenerates just like him. Given the guy’s priors (hit and run) and his middle name (Spancky?), he appears to come from the shallow end of the gene pool. I vote for forced sterilization once someone is found guilty of crimes like this. The abuse he may receive in prison won’t be justice enough.

      1. https://www.ancestry.com/name-origin?surname=raya

        Likely Spanish origin.

        Consequently, his family may be more recently from a Spanish-speaking country south of our border than from across the pond.

        I will agree with you that it is silly to blame it on an “immigrant” just because he does not have a typical WASP name. His family may have been in CA since before it became a state.

        1. Raya is Galician, Andres in a common vernacular of Andreas found in Spain (as well as NW France and Germany); for reference there is a Raya, Honduras, but I am not suggesting that the perp’s family originated from that country. And there’s this: http://names.mooseroots.com/l/9161/Raya

          You clearly have never lived in southern CA around LA or Ventura County and observed any of the young male Hispanic population, particularly the gangs, and you appear completely ignorant of the 2016 dog fighting bust that occurred in the Southland. And to Prairie Rose, I never called the perp an immigrant.

          1. Sorry about the lack of clarity on my part, Cape Cod.

            That portion of my comment was in response to other comments that noted sending his bones back to Mexico or guessing he was not born here based on his last name, implying he was an immigrant.

            I agree with your comment that prison will not be justice enough for that monster.

  6. My guess, after seeing the name, is that this individual wasn’t born on our shores. Just a guess, mind you. . .but this may be another poor soul, who only came here in search of freedom and a better life. Yes, we have plenty of our own homegrown psychopaths, but many of these foreign born psychopaths should never have been allowed to cross our borders and remain here.

  8. Sheriff Joe loved animals and was death on animal cruelty. This guy would not have have lasted long in jail under Sheriff Joe, the inmates would have taught him a new game, Drop the soap, slip and fall.

  10. 21 years of age criminal history, tossing an animal into a ravine not once but twice. What was this tards family teaching him. I can just imagine when he returns from the slammer he’ll be throwing people into the ravine.

  11. Oh no oh no! That poor dog! I didn’t see the video, but she’s a sweet dog if she didn’t savagely bite his face up the second time he picked her up to try to kill her. She must have been so scared and in pain. I wonder how she survived – maybe sliding down the steep sides. I wonder if she trustingly came up to him that second time.

    What injuries did the dog sustain? Will she recover fully or is she going to be in pain forever from the damage to her body?

    Raya is an example of people from whom society needs protection. It’s about more than justice. Sometimes, the rest of us just want a break from criminals. What a callous, inhumane thug. What’s wrong with people like him? The photo in this post is haunting. So glad the pup made it. Now he can go to jail and live in a cage for a while.

    1. Jeffery Dahmer explained this is always the first step in the making of a serial killer in their sick fantasy world.
      They have no empathy.

      1. Do you mean perhaps she was a sweetie instead of the gladiator dog he wanted to make him look tough? He wanted a tough guy’s pittie and she just wanted to lick everyone?

        I’m glad she’s out of his hands and in a loving home, but so sorry she had to be thrown down a ravine, twice, to do it.

        This reminds me of that story from a while ago where someone dumped a dog off. Video cameras showed the loyal dog chasing after his car until she was later hit and killed.

        1. Yes, Karen S. That’s what I meant. I’m sorry it wasn’t stated clearly. But you guessed correctly, anyway.

          No matter what the dog breeders do to increase the frequency of unsound temperaments, they can’t completely eliminate dogs with sound temperaments.

    3. Raya needs to be killed and his body thrown into the ravine. Then his bones shipped by UPS to Mexico.

    1. Yes, David, but . . . given that Raya is also a burglar who either doesn’t know or doesn’t care about security cameras on the houses he burgles . . . the education system may be failing as well.

    2. Actually the criminal justice system is working about as well as possible in this case. He will be in prison for five years, during which time he will not commit any crimes or abuse any animals. Most states don’t send people to prison for animal abuse, so CA is more progressive than most in this regard. Of course, in an ideal world he would receive intensive psychological treatment to try to cure his pathology, but the state’s prison budget is broken. Plus, there is little evidence that psychotherapy helps sociopaths, unfortunately.

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