BOSTON -- A man arrested last week after allegedly killing a seagull in downtown Boston pleaded not guilty to animal cruelty charges in court Tuesday.

Christopher Guay, 40, said the bird was divebombing him as he worked washing windows and he swung at it, but office workers who saw the incident called the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and an MSPCA officer arrested him.

NewsCenter 5's Shiba Russell reported that Guay could face five years in prison if convicted of the felony animal cruelty charge he is facing, but his attorney argued in court that the charge is not a felony.

Despite being heckled by onlookers who made birdlike squawking noises as he passed them inside Boston Municipal Court, Guay faced a judge pleading not guilty and signed a bail warning. He declined to answer questions from the media on the advice of his attorney. Guay talked with NewsCenter 5 over the weekend, however, saying he never intended to hurt the bird and that he swung at it in self-defense. He said he keeps several birds as pets.

"I'm an animal lover, plain and simple. I don't have a violent bone in my body," Guay said at the time.

Guay's shaken wife Lin Maloney called the case confusing. Monday, her husband was fired from his job with Cliffhangers Inc.

"Very confused. Didn't make any sense," she said.

Some Boston office workers snapped pictures of the bird incident and Guay's arrest on a Devonshire rooftop last Friday. They said several gulls had built a nest and hatched eggs and only swooped on the window washers when they came near the nest. They said Guay's self-defense story doesn't fly and they claimed that after he hit and killed the mother bird he made an obscene gesture at them, grabbing his crotch.

Maloney said the office workers have ruined her husband's life.

"I think they're vicious and vindictive to not even attempt to talk to him. I mean, if I was on the street and I saw somebody just swinging at something, I wouldn't make the assumption they were attempting to hurt it," Maloney said.

Guay is scheduled to return to court next month.