SUBLETTE COUNTY – A Marbleton man said he got tired of his neighbor’s dog, a Plott lion-hunting hound, charging the fence between their properties and shot at him with a BB gun.

On May 28 at the Marbleton Sheriff’s Office, Deputy Todd Morgan responded to a complaint by Steven Hall that his neighbor, Robert J. Sorensen, had shot his dog, according to the affidavit.

The neighbors have a 4-foot-high chainlink fence between them and Hall said he’s had problems for 15 or 20 years, it says. The deputy saw the dog had a swollen area on its left rear thigh, which Hall was worried might affect its ability to go lion hunting, the affidavit says.

Sorenson admitted shooting the dog with his BB gun because it charged the fence every time someone came to the door or sat on the porch. He said he complained to the town and sheriff’s office in the past and on May 28, picked up his BB gun, pumped it and shot the dog in the foot. He had also shot it several times in the previous two weeks.

The deputy asked the Sublette County Attorney’s Office what charges would apply for shooting a dog in residential town limits with a BB gun.

Sorenson was charged June 13 in Sublette County Circuit Court with one misdemeanor count of cruelty to animals, punishable by a maximum of 6 months in jail and $750 fine.