The Bucks County man who shot and lit his dog on fire was sentenced to state prison

A Bucks County man who stole a gun from his friend’s widow, and then used the gun to kill his dog, was sentenced to two to four years in state prison during a hearing Wednesday.

Nikolay Lukyanchikov, 50, told Bucks County Judge Raymond McHugh that he was “very sorry” for his actions as he pleaded guilty to receiving stolen property and aggravated cruelty to animals.

McHugh chastised Lukyanchikov for his actions, which included burning the body of his dog Preacher on a fire pit outside his home. He said Lukyanchikov’s desire to possess a gun after being barred from doing so had unnerved him.

“It scares me because you know you’re not supposed to have a gun, and yet you kept pursuing one,” McHugh said. “You should not have a gun, period.”

Investigators were called to Lukyanchikov’s home in Northampton Township in April for reports of an open fire on his front lawn, according to prosecutors.

There, the officers found Lukyanchikov sitting on a couch, “incredibly intoxicated” with a .25 blood-alcohol level and unable to speak, the affidavit said. He was setting fake $100 bills on fire with lighter fluid inside a metal fire pit. On top of the fire pit was a barbecue grate, on which Lukyanchikov had placed a small greyhound dog that had been badly burned.

After the fire was extinguished, the officers determined the animal had been apparently shot in its eye, according to the affidavit.

Lukyanchikov’s roommate told police that she had heard several gunshots earlier that morning and found him standing over his wounded dog, prosecutors said. He told her he shot the dog to punish it for going upstairs.

In a later interview with detectives, Lukyanchikov admitted to the shooting and chalked up his behavior to “having a bad day,” according to testimony Wednesday.

Preacher, who was called Bonanza during his racing days, was adopted by Lukyanchikov from the National Greyhound Adoption Program, a Philadelphia group that rescues greyhounds from racetracks. The dog had come from the Canindrome, a track in Macau, China, that animal protection advocates have called one of the worst in the world.

The 9mm Beretta handgun that officers recovered from the scene belonged to the wife of one of Lukyanchikov’s friends, according to Deputy District Attorney Robert James, who prosecuted the case.

When his friend died, Lukyanchikov asked the woman if he could have the gun. She refused, and Lukyanchikov later stole it from her home.

He was barred from buying or possessing a gun due to an involuntary commitment, according to James.

“I think it’s fair to characterize him as a dangerous person who demonstrated his use of a gun on an animal,” James said. “And it’s not a stretch to think he’d use it on a human.”