Pit bull doused in lighter fluid, set on fire - Philadelphia, PA

Thursday, Sep 4, 2008

County: Philadelphia

Disposition: Open

Suspect(s) Unknown - We need your help!

A dog was charred and smoldering when officers arrived at the scene Thursday near the Olney train station in Philadelphia.

A horrified neighbor called the Pennsylvania SPCA after witnessing four teenagers walk a young pit bull to the commuter rail tracks near Front Street and Tabor Road.

The teens wrapped a towel around the dog, doused it with lighter fluid, and then set it ablaze.

"I've seen kids do things like this before," said George Bengal, chief law enforcement officer for the PSPCA. "But this is pretty bizarre."

When Bengal and his partner arrived at 6 p.m., the dog was dead and burned beyond recognition.

"It may have been a black dog with some other colors," Bengal said. "But it was pretty hard to tell. And its face was all burned up."

The neighbor called after spotting the first wisps of smoke.

District Attorney Lynn Abraham last month appointed a special prosecutor, Barbara Paul, to pursue this kind of cruelty case, Bengal said.

Bengal and his partner on Thursday found another dog - also a pit bull, also about a year old - 50 yards away along the tracks.

At least it hadn't been burned, Bengal said. He believed it had been killed a week before, wrapped in a garbage bag, and dumped near the tracks. A necropsy by the agency's staff veterinarian is pending to establish a cause of death.

The PSPCA is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of those responsible for burning the dog. Anyone with information is asked to call the confidential cruelty hotline at 1-866-601-7722 or email [email protected].

If you have information on this case, please contact:
PSPCA
1-866-601-7722

References

• « PA State Animal Cruelty Map
  « More cases in Philadelphia County, PA

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