A man, who was arrested after killing his family dog and placing it inside a barbecue smoker, blamed the devil for his actions. According to the police, 42-year-old Patrick Zane Thompson, resident of Goodyear, Arizona, was arrested last month and charged with multiple counts of animal cruelty, including threat and assault, after his family saw him behave erratically at home.

Reportedly, Thompson saw his 17-year-old daughter wearing a tee with devilish overtones and thought God wanted him to make a male sacrifice in order to atone. Defending his actions, Thompson said instead of sacrificing his six-year-old son or himself, he deemed it fit to grab the family’s 15-pound poodle as his children and wife begged him to stop, and flee before strangling it to death and placing the dead animal inside an industrial-sized meat smoker in his yard.

While searching the “lake of fire”, which is how Thompson described the barbecue smoker, investigators recovered the dog’s charred remains. Apparently, Thompson had also inflicted a gash on his right arm during the incident.

When interrogated, Thompson said he had smoked some marijuana earlier in the day after which he started to have “an episode”. At first, he only burnt his daughter’s tee but then he could not get himself to stop. He was completely convinced that he had to sacrifice a male for atonement or God would kill his entire family. Blaming the devil for his actions, Thompson said he would have rather kill the poodle than himself or his son.

Thompson owns Raging Cajun Smoking Barbecue since 2010. According to a Facebook post by his daughter, Thompson suffered a mental breakdown after his business started to fail and that is when he turned to drugs.

“It wasn’t the most responsible decision but this could of happen to anyone of us,” her post read in part.

On the company’s Facebook page, someone identifying as Oldest Daughter posted a similar message, saying, “We aren't going to let this situation get to us were [sic] not gonna let the deceiver the devil get us down we gonna look up with our heads held high and have a smile on our faces because Jesus is the one that can protect him, guide him, unconditionally [sic] love, he has the one that has the last say what happens.”

Thompson has been married for 21 years and has four children with his wife. He was booked at Maricopa County Jail for a $20,000 bond.

Photo Credits: Capitalist Creations