A Readington man has been charged with animal cruelty after police say he shot and killed a dog.

Friends of the owners tell News 12 that he had been pet-sitting the dog, a pit bull named Remi.

“[The owner] posted that her dog had been shot in the head, and rest in peace,” said Kay, one of the owners’ friends. “And just, my jaw was on the floor, I couldn’t believe it.”

Kay is a co-founder of Jersey Pits Rescue. She says the owners, from High Bridge, left Remi with a dogsitter in Readington they found on the app Rover.

“They dropped him off Saturday the 10th. He was supposed to be there for a week,” Kay said. “They shot him on Monday. [The owners] weren’t even allowed to go say goodbye to Remi or be with him, because the injuries were just too gruesome.”

Ten days later, police charged 30-year-old Craig Cooke of Readington with third-degree animal cruelty and second-degree possession of a weapon.

Cooke and Kalli Hartman - the business owner where the shooting happened on Flemington Whitehouse Road - told police that Remi was fighting with another dog and being aggressive toward them.

Those who knew Remi say that’s out of character.

“Remi was a beautiful, kind, gentle soul too pure for this Earth, honestly,” Kay said. “He didn’t deserve any of it. I feel like they did what they did, and they’re just taking the fact that he’s a pit bull and using it to their advantage to say, ‘Oh, we felt threatened.’”

Remi’s owners were unable to meet with News 12 on Thursday night. They say the photos provided show how loving and gentle he was.

“I hope that they feel, at the end of all of this, that they’ve gotten full justice for Remi,” Kay said.