Fight against pit bull shooting charge begins away from Marble Hill, Mo.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The headline and Snider's age have been corrected.

FREDERICKTOWN, Mo. -- A Marble Hill, Mo., man continued his yearlong fight on Thursday to clear his name of an animal abuse charge that accuses him of shooting a pit bull because it was getting on his nerves.

Levi W. Snider, 24, pleaded not guilty in a Madison County courtroom on Thursday, a couple dozen miles from Marble Hill, where police say Snider recklessly killed his neighbor's dog because of its incessant barking. Snider has maintained, however, that he was acting in self-defense, with the dog poised to attack.

The preliminary arraignment was largely perfunctory, according to the Madison County Clerk's office, with the judge setting the next court date for November in a case that has been slow to get started after a series of continuances and delays.

Neither Bollinger County Prosecuting Attorney Stephen Gray nor Shanna Surratt, Snider's defense attorney, returned calls seeking comment Thursday.

It's been a year since Snider and his co-defendant Travis Reed were charged in an incident that prompted some to threaten to do to them what police say they did to the dog. Bollinger County deputies found the burned pit bull carcass near County Road 318 last October, and court records say it at one point was dragged through the streets. Deputies with the Bollinger County Sheriff's Department canvassed the area and when they happened upon Snider, court documents say, he eventually confessed to killing the dog.

Snider told a deputy that the dog "charged" him and that he shot it through the shoulder "like you would a deer." The dog died instantly, Snider told the deputy. The dog was near a large tree on Reed's property, roughly 60 yards from his home, according to the statement.

Both men were soon charged, though Reed's time in court ended in April when he pleaded to a charge of littering for having improperly disposed of the dog's remains. Snider has had courts dates rescheduled for various reasons at least half a dozen times after the change of venue was granted to Madison County.

A maximum punishment in the case carries up to a year in the county jail. Snider's next court date comes in November, with a trial likely to follow sometime next year.

His friend, Reed, hopes Snider's acquitted.

"It's like they care more about a dog than they do about a person," he said. "If he hadn't have fired that shot, I would have been taking Levi to the hospital that day."

Pertinent address:

Marble Hill, Mo.