SALT LAKE CITY — A 45-year-old man was arrested Saturday afternoon for stabbing a dog to death inside a room at the Gateway Inn.

Daniel Etherington told police he was acting in self defense when the dog tried to bite him, but court documents say the evidence didn’t match what he described.

Etherington claimed the dog was stabbed once before it jumped onto the bed and bled out as it was moving towards its crate.

“However, at the scene the crate is full of bright red arterial blood with it splashed on the walls around the crate. There was very little blood on the bed,” read the probable cause statement.

Court documents also state Etherington got rid of the dog’s body “and never notified the owner or law enforcement or animal control of the circumstance.”

The animal’s body has still not been found.

The dog’s owner told police that the 45-year-old told him on two separate occasions that he was going to kill the animal.

Police said there were no witnesses to the crime.

Officer Darrell Anderson with the Salt Lake City Police Department wrote in the probable cause statement, “I was informed by management that Daniel has previously been trespassed from the Gateway Inn and is not welcome there. The motel room belongs to the dog owner who also states Daniel was not supposed to be there.”

Etherington was booked into Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of aggravated cruelty to animals, intentional or knowingly, and criminal trespass.