A pit bull led employees at a Floyd County, Kentucky, animal shelter to an area where a dog had been hanged from a rope in early June, according to local news reports.
The discovery occurred after the workers found spoiled meat on a walking trail near the shelter. They informed the county about the meat due to concerns that the shelter dogs might eat it, according to WYMT. The workers typically use the trail to walk the dogs.
As shelter managers Elexis Craft and Allison Cobern continued walking up the trail, they ran into a stray pit bull. “You could tell that something was really bothering him, and he just kept barking at us and walking towards us and then running. So me and Lexi said, ‘Well, let’s just look around,’” Cobern told reporters.
The employees unsuccessfully attempted to coax the dog into their vehicle before it began leading them to a ditch where they found another dog, which appeared to be hanging from a tree with a rope around its neck, according to WYMT. (RELATED: Hero Pit Bull Runs Into Burning Detroit Building To Save Child)
“They tied him into a place where they wanted us to never find it,” Craft told WYMT. “As soon as I seen it, I could just not stop saying like, ‘Oh my God. Oh my God.’ Like, it did not feel real to me to see him hanging there.”
GRAPHIC: Pit bull leads shelter employees to hanged dog >> https://t.co/OzsMnpOQnt
— Western Mass News (@WMassNews) June 17, 2024
The workers realized the dog had perished and surmised that it had been deceased for days after being hanged. Craft said she and Cobern “both stood there for a couple of minutes, just in complete shock.”
She added: “Seeing him and just the condition he was in, I mean, it was one of the most horrific sights I have ever seen.”
The dog’s face appeared to have been bashed up, Cobern told the outlet.
The pit bull seems to have been acquainted with the dog, according to Cobern. “I had to physically put him on a leash and carry him away as he was nuzzling his dead friend’s body.”
The dog was cremated after an anonymous donor paid for the service, WYMT reported. His ashes have been placed in a small urn that is attachable to the pit bull’s collar. The pit pit bull was later adopted. The workers, however, would like to discover who hanged the dog.
“We just want to make sure that those animals in the future are taken care of,” Craft told WYMT. “And that’s all we’re here for, is just to try to battle the abuse for animals in Floyd County. Because it is absolutely horrific.”
