SANTA ANA, Calif. – Eric Lyn Holliday, a 58-year-old Buena Park man on probation for attacking a coworker with a metal pipe, has been charged with felony animal cruelty for killing a pregnant dog by attaching a rope to his SUV and a parking bollard, wrapping the dog’s neck in the rope and driving until the animal’s neck had been snapped.
Holliday has been charged with one felony count of animal cruelty and one felony count of possession of a hard drug with two or more prior convictions. He has also been charged with violating his probation.
Holliday is currently on two years of formal probation after he plead guilty on October 15, 2025 to one felony count of assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury and one felony count of vandalism causing damage of $400 or more.
Holliday faces a maximum sentence of eight years and four months for the felony animal cruelty charge and the felony possession of a hard drug with two or more prior convictions. He faces an additional maximum sentence of four years and eight months for violating his probation.
On Monday, December 1, 2025, at about 7:35 a.m., surveillance video captured a Ford Expedition driving into the alley in the 600 block of S. Brookhurst Street in Anaheim. A man, later identified as Holliday, is seen getting out of the driver’s door holding a white rope and proceeding to loop one end of the rope around a yellow parking bollard and the other end of the rope onto the tow hitch ball of the Ford Expedition.
Holliday is then seen taking a milk crate which contained a small white dog out of the passenger side of the vehicle and looping the center of the rope around the dog’s neck and tilting the crate for the dog to walk out. Holliday is seen getting back into the driver’s seat of the vehicle, accelerating forward to tighten the rope around the dog’s neck, snapping the animal’s neck. Holliday is seen on the video getting out to look at the dog before getting back in his vehicle and driving away, leaving the dead dog in the alley. The dog, believed to be a six-year-old Maltese, had suffered a severed spine and arteries.
A few hours later, the manager of a business in the 600 block of S. Brookhurst Street found the dead dog in the alley and called the Anaheim Police Department to investigate. Holliday was identified by Anaheim police and arrested. He is accused of having several baggies of methamphetamine in his possession when he was arrested.
“There is a special place in hell for people who abuse animals,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer. “This was not an act of rage. This was a clear plan to kill a defenseless animal, and when he executed his plan, he drove off, leaving the animal’s body in the alley for someone else to discover the horror of what he had done. Only someone who is pure evil could engage in such reprehensible conduct, and we will ensure the Court clearly understands what this individual is capable of and the threat he poses to public safety before any sentence is imposed. Violence against animals will never be tolerated, and every act of animal abuse will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Deputy District Attorney Michael Chay of the Consumer & Environmental Protection Unit is prosecuting this case.
Here’s what sentence the suspect can expect based on California law and the charges described above:
- Felony Animal Cruelty (Penal Code §597)
- This is a “wobbler” offense but charged as a felony here.
- Punishable by up to 3 years in state prison and/or a fine of up to $20,000.
- Aggravating factors (such as planning and killing a pregnant dog) could push the sentence toward the upper term.
- Felony Possession of a Hard Drug with Two or More Prior Convictions (Prop 36, Health & Safety Code §11395)
- Classified as a “treatment-mandated felony” and a wobbler.
- If charged as a felony, the sentence can be up to 3 years in state prison.
- Courts may offer mandatory treatment instead of incarceration, but given the violent history and probation status, treatment eligibility is unlikely.
- Violation of Formal Probation
- The judge can revoke probation and impose the original suspended sentence or add time.
- For felony probation violations, the court often reinstates the original term or imposes additional time, which could add up to 4 years and 8 months as stated in the case details.
Combined Exposure
- Maximum for animal cruelty and drug possession: 8 years and 4 months (as noted in the case summary).
- Additional for probation violation: 4 years and 8 months.
- Total potential sentence: up to 13 years in state prison, though actual sentencing will depend on aggravating factors, prior record, and judicial discretion.