 Dog beaten to death, dumped in trash
Easton, PA (US)Date: May 25, 2006
County: Northampton
Local Map: available
Disposition: Not Charged
Abuser names unreleased
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Investigating the possible fatal beating of a dog at a home in the 100 block of South Seventh Street is proving difficult for the Northampton County SPCA because the dog's body was hauled to the trash dump.
A neighbor of the pet owners, whose names have not been released, called police after she said she heard a dog barking and crying. After the dog fell silent, she told police she saw her neighbor carry a small trash bag to a garbage can at the curb.
She told police she felt the bag and believed the dog was inside, and when police arrived, the found the miniature pinscher's body in with the trash.
But Shara Fritzinger, cruelty investigator for the SPCA, said the woman who tipped off police to the dog's death May 25 contacted an animal rights group in Harrisburg instead of the local SPCA. Fritzinger said Easton police did not immediately realize SPCA officials had not been called.
By the time Fritzinger was contacted the next day, sanitation workers had hauled the dog's carcass away with other rubbish. Fritzinger and a police officer went to the dump, but were unable to locate the dog's body amidst the vast amount of trash.
Fritzinger said the dead dog's body would normally be a key element in the investigation because a veterinarian would be able to determine if it had been physically abused.
"It's very difficult to pursue a case without a lot of evidence," she said.
Without the corpse, she will have to rely on the police report and the neighbor's statement and hope she can track down the pet owners, who may have left the state, so she can approach the district attorney's office about filing charges. Neighborhood MapFor more information about the Interactive Animal Cruelty Maps, see the map notes.
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