Hunter shot and skinned ‘coyotes’ only to discover they were a family’s much-loved German Shepherd pet dogs

A man has been criminally charged in the US after killing and skinning a family’s petGerman shepherds he says he thought were two wild coyotes.

Michael Konschak, 61, of Carmel, New York, told a court in Connecticut he was ashamed of what he did and “it was never my intent that morning to harm the victims’ pets”.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit, police said Konschak killed the dogs with a crossbow on November 18 after they escaped from the Caviola family’s garden.

He had been hunting deer nearby and said he killed what he thought were coyotes - something which is legal in Connecticut.

They were infact the family dogs- male named Cimo and a female named Lieben - both aged 10.

Shane Caviola with photographs of his family's dogs Cimo, right, and Lieben, left, on a poster outside Danbury Superior Court on Wednesday (AP)

Police with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection arrested Konschak in February on charges including tampering with evidence, forgery, interfering with a law enforcement officer and hunting-related violations.

Animal rights advocates have urged authorities to add animal cruelty charges. Danbury State’s Attorney David Applegate said the case is still being investigated and that more charges are possible.

Konschak, whose lawyer called the dogs’ deaths an accident, applied for a special probation program that could have resulted in the charges being erased, but a judge rejected that request on Wednesday.

Erin Caviola, of Ridgefield,Connecticut, said she and her family searched for their dogs for weeks and posted flyers after they went missing, and that they are heartbroken about what happened to them.

Michael Konschak reads a statement during an appearance in Danbury Superior Court (AP)

She said the dogs’ heads were removed and remain missing.

Ms Caviola said she did not know the dogs’ fate until almost a month later when she found out photos of them had been shared with a taxidermist, who was asked to preserve them.

“We live with the emotional pain as we think about what they felt in their final moments lying beside each other dying,” she said.

The prosecutor alleged there were inconsistencies in Konschak’s story and questioned how Konschak could not see that the animals were dogs before skinning them.

Konschak is due back in court next month.