Police charged a Virginia man with a felony for shooting and hanging his neighbor’s husky, Winter, from a tree in his yard in Bedford County, Fox 17 reported.
The screaming man, Michael Elliott, allegedly approached his neighbor Donna Ripley’s door, grabbed a rope, then wrapped it around the Winter’s neck and dragged the pup to his house, witness and neighbor Claire Fewell told Fox 17. Fewell’s dog, Rex, was also sitting on the porch with Winter.
A Virginia man has been charged with a felony for torturing a dog. https://t.co/gyanccSE0q
— FoxNashville (@FOXNashville) July 8, 2022
Ridley and Fewell said Elliott may have been upset Winter may have killed his cat. (RELATED: Florida Man Arrested For Allegedly Killing Neighbor’s Rooster)
“They did bring the dead cat in a blanket, showing it to me,” Fewell told Fox 17.
Fewell then called the dog’s other co-owner, Dennis Evans, after hearing noise coming from Elliott’s backyard off Orrix Creek Road in Evington, Fox 17 reported. Evans arrived and claimed Winter had been shot many times with a BB gun and hung by a rope. His paws were dangling just over the ground.
“I cannot even describe what I saw,” Evans told Fox 17. “I put winter in the back of my truck and brought her back to our house. The rope was wrapped so tight around her neck. I took the knife, almost to a vertical position. Yeah, she tried to bite me. I don’t care if she did. I wanted that rope off her neck.”
Evans decided to put the dog down to her extensive injuries.
Elliott faces a felony charge from Bedford County Animal Control for torturing Winter and he will appear in court on July 21, Fox 17 reported.
Paul Lacy, 34, from Watervliet, New York was recently charged with 22 misdemeanor counts of overriding, torturing, and injuring animals, CBS 6 reported. He had kept 20 dogs and one cat in deplorable conditions in his home.