Michael R. Shartle doesn’t go to school and doesn’t go to work. But according to Spokane County Sheriff’s Deputies, the 19-year-old from rural Chattaroy thinks his family should give him $50 a day in allowance for sitting on his ass. Earlier this week, Shartle’s school bus-driving mom and grandma turned off the faucet. They refused to shell out any more dough. Shartle didn’t like that. And what followed the refusal is one of the sickest cases of alleged animal cruelty and general scumbagliness that’s crossed our desk in some time. Spokane County Sheriff’s Sgt. Dave Reagan retold the story over the phone with Seattle Weekly. Like we said, Shartle wanted money–$50 on the barrelhead for the pleasure of his company. Mom and grandma said “no dice.” So that’s when Shartle goes and grabs a butcher knife. He allegedly shoves his mom and granny up on the couch, then starts doing the fling-the-knife-into-floor thing in front of them to freak them out. This works. And it goes on for a while, before mom and grandma notice their two dogs are missing.Shartle says he locked them in the barn.Next, the crazed teen smashes the house phone, walks outside and slashes his mom’s car tires. Then he picks up an axe and heads out to the barn.Sheriff’s deputies still haven’t found the dog’s bodies, only blood, fur and brain matter that was left behind at the scene. But according to a Spokesman Review

report yesterday, court documents say these were no one-swing-jobs. Shartle supposedly took several chops per dog and there were signs of the pets struggling to get out.After that, the young man comes back inside and apparently retells his actions in the barn in great detail to his horrified mom and grandma. He talks about “gutting” them and how he killed the dogs instead of killing them. At some point he pulls out a gun.But then he decides he’s had enough. He walks into his room and starts blasting music. Next day, Mom’s boss at the Riverside School District is calling on the phone, but she can’t answer because Shartle smashed it. The boss grows worried and drives to her house. Mom and grandma come running out and escape.Shartle gets thrown in jail not long after.Which is exactly where he is today–charged with unlawful imprisonment, domestic violence, harassment, malicious mischief and, of course, animal cruelty.