A 28 year-old St. Johns County man is charged for for allegedly cutting his dog's throat Sunday night.

"He snapped," neighbor Adrian Bouchot tells our news partner Action News. "He totally snapped."

Neighbors say they saw Randal Hart, who lives at 8450 County Road 13 North, stabbing his dog several times and cut its throat.  Bouchot says he and Hart had just returned from having dinner at Cracker Barrel.

"He's got one of those double-edged knives, you know one of those stabbing knives, and he looks at me and he says 'you back off,'" says Bouchot.  "He says 'if you don't back off something else is going to happen.'  So I walked away and as I walked away I saw him slitting the dog's throat."

Deputies say Hart was then seen dragging the howling dog to a nearby plot of land.

"His dog had his paws on his shoulders, like he was his bud.  And he's sitting there stabbing him," said Bouchot.

It took the deputy and the Animal Control officer about 45 minutes to find the dog, a St. Bernard mix, alive in a grassy area near Hart's home.

The dog, Amber, was then transported to Atlantic Veterinarian Hospital for emergency surgery.  We are told she is doing well.

Hart told a deputy that he allegedly stabbed the dog because the dog bit a kitten and needed to be "put down."  The deputy located the kitten and observed no injury ad determined it was playing with another dog on the property.

"It was a sweetheart," says Bouchot.  "It was a beautiful dog.  It is a beautiful dog."

Hart is now in St. Johns County Jail and is due in court on Tuesday morning.