Sheriff’s deputies outside Waco, Texas, are investigating an animal cruelty case after people reported a Snapchat video showing several youths shooting a dog and then shoving firecrackers inside its body. They later set the dog on fire and watched it burn.
A Facebook user, Serena Kristiana Teakell, posted a copy of the video to her page alerting people to the graphic nature of the attack on the dog. The post was eventually deleted by Facebook but not before it received over 2,000,000 views, nearly 10,000 reactions and nearly 28,000 shares.
In her post, she said, “I’d like to introduce you to a little boy from the Waco area.” She continued saying she would like to “show you all what he and his friends think is cool to do to a dogs body. I have no idea how the dog died or who this kid is, but since he found it so funny and cool to post on this Snapchat, I figured he wouldn’t mind if I shared it with Facebook.”
After she received what was apparently some negative feedback about the post, she responded with her reasoning for why she offered it.
“I posted it because, as it goes with all things, when the public is outraged they can not turn a blind eye to the subject,” she wrote. At the very least, he will be shamed publicly and at the very least, everyone will be aware of his deep seeded psychological issues.”
She said the person who posted the video is not a kid. “He is an 18-year-old adult. I condescendingly called him a kid because his behavior is that of a young bratty sadistic child. He needs punishment and therapy,” she concluded.
Teakell said she never expected so much feedback from this post. “Thank you all for sharing,” she wrote. “Let us stay vigilant against all injustices.”
The owner of the nearly 1-year- old pup named Ellie said the dog went missing on Friday but he didn’t know what happened to her until she came across the video on Facebook in an interview with KVUE.
“A friend of mine posted a video on Facebook,” James Plant said to Rogers in the interview. Rogers said he clicked on the video and they showed the face of the dog. “I automatically knew offhand because of her eyes. She had one blue eye and one brown eye.” He said that distinctive eye color mismatch is not that common in her breed of dog.
“I froze up,” Plant said of his reaction to the video. He said his girlfriend had to take his phone away so he could not watch any more of the video.
“I was definitely horrified, to say the least,” a very emotional Plant said. Rogers asked Plant what might lead someone to do something like this. “Honestly, I don’t know what it is, but whatever it is, that person needs help,” he replied. “They need help bad because you shouldn’t do stuff like that–not to anything, ever.”
Ellie would have turned one-year-old in November.
This case is being investigated by detectives from the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office.
In August, Breitbart Texas reported on a Baylor University football player who also got in trouble for animal cruelty after allegedly abusing his dog over a “potty training” incident. That assault was captured by a friend who witnessed the beating and made a complaint with police. The football player, Ishmael Zamora, was suspended from the team for 3 games following the revelation of the video that showed him kicking the dog and beating it with a belt. He apologized for the incident and was also facing citation from the City of Waco.
Breitbart Texas reported on the seriousness of animal cruelty and what it can lead to if not properly dealt with. In 2014, in a guidebook for Criminal Justice professionals entitled, “The Link between Violence to Animals and People,” former prosecutor Allie Phillips wrote a 71-page treatise on the correlation between violence perpetrated on animals and violent acts against people. The essay was published by the National District Attorneys Association and has been attached below.
Her study sets out the following correlations between violence against animals and people in the Foreword section of the document:
- Child abuse and elder abuse and neglect have been demonstrated to be correlations of animal cruelty.
- Domestic violence programs are beginning to query about pets and provide shelter for at-risk families and their pets.
- Child protective services workers, adult protective services worker and animal control officers link their observations when performing home visits because they know that where animals are at risk, people often are at risk and vice versa.
- Veterinarians are being trained in forensic pathology to determine cause of death and preservation of evidence for prosecution purposes.
- Law enforcement officers are educated about the often-extensive histories of crimes against society committed by persons who also abuse animals.
- Medical and mental health personnel are beginning to address the traumatic impact of dog bites as well as the connection between dog bites and physical abuse.
- Prosecutors are putting increased emphasis on animal abuse crimes because they understand that the behavior that harms the animal is the same behavior that harms humans
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX.
Understanding the Link between Violence to Animals and People by lanashadwick on Scribd