Dog found skinned, decapitated and shot
Millbrook, AL (US)Incident Date: Thursday, Feb 21, 2008
County: Elmore
Disposition: Open
Suspect(s) Unknown - We need your help!
Last week, someone dumped a dead dog -- which had been skinned, decapitated and shot -- on the lawn of a Millbrook homeowner. Police are investigating the incident as an animal cruelty case, said Millbrook Assistant Police Chief P.K. Johnson.
Johnson said the persons responsible could face up to 10 years in prison for the Class-C felony. Johnson would not go into detail about the department's investigation, but said police do have a description of the suspect vehicle.
No animal -- dead or alive -- deserves that kind of treatment, Johnson said.
"We are definitely going to pursue it," he said. "We don't want this kind of activity occurring in our city."
Rea Cord, director of the Humane Society of Elmore County, recently learned about the case and said in her four years as director she has never seen anything that compares to this case.
It makes Cord and other humane society officials worried that people who could do such a thing are still at large.
"My main concern is if someone did this just being cruel to animals, you've got to worry about what they will do in the future," she said.
Steven Tears, managing director for the Montgomery Humane Society, said his division of detectives that investigate cases of animal cruelty gets similar calls every day.
Tears said he has seen cases in which animals have been burned, shot and beaten.
A pit bull named Louis Vuitton made national news last year after it was brutally beaten and set on fire. Juan Daniels, 20, was accused of the first-degree felony and has been indicted by a Montgomery County grand jury, Tears said.
The humane society has since found a home for the dog, he said.
If agency officials find owners they believe are being cruel to animals, they go after them, he said.
Investigator J.S. Hill said the humane division is looking into 218 current cases of possible animal cruelty and neglect. It reviewed about 1,000 cases last year and prosecuted 82, he said.
Animal cruelty is a sign of future violence, said Hill, who served as a Montgomery police officer six years and worked for other law enforcement agencies before joining the Montgomery County Humane Officer Division.
There are times when they intervene for some offenders, such as a recently prosecuted juvenile who they were able to get help, he said.
These offenders are required to perform community service, receive mental health treatment and take animal education classes, he said.
Tears said he's heard many reasons people give for treating animals cruelly, but he doesn't buy them.
"It's just mean," he said. References« AL State Animal Cruelty Map
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