The incident occurred in February. For the next few months, the SPCA looked into whether the man ought to be charged for the killing. Over the weekend, the organization decided it couldn’t because the animal had been killed humanely.

The man, Halliday said, struck the dog in the head with a hammer, rendering it unconscious. He then slit its throat.

“That is the normal way — if one can use that word — that animals are killed all over the world,” Halliday said.