The Michigan Humane Society (MHS) is investigating a case of animal abuse and is seeking information from the public regarding a German Shepherd dog that was tied to a fence and shot in Detroit, according to Fox 2 Detroit.
The dog’s body was found by the cruelty investigation team within the Humane Society behind the garage of a house in Devonshire on the east side of Detroit. During the initial investigation of the dog’s body, it was determined that the dog was tied up with electrical cords on the fence while dangling a few inches off the ground, and shot afterwards.
After a necropsy, an autopsy on an animal, the German Shepherd was found to be alive while it was tied up on the fence and killed when it was shot several times, according to the MHS blog. Bullets were recovered after the examination.
In a statement, MHS said that it had found some potential witnesses to the crime.
“After talking with potential witnesses we learned that less than 10 days prior, witnesses heard a dog screaming and then gunshots from the area [in] which the dog was found,” the MHS investigator Sarah Schertel said.
According to a law recently passed in Michigan, which enforces harsher punishments to animal abusers, anyone found guilty of the abuse, killing, and torture of an animal in the first degree will face up to 10 years in prison.
“A person would be guilty of a first-degree offense if he or she intentionally and knowingly killed, tortured, mutilated, maimed, disfigured, or poisoned a companion animal and did so or threatened to do so with the intent to cause mental suffering or distress to a person or to exert control over a person,” the bill read (pdf).
MHS wrote in its blog that it will offer a $2,500 reward for anyone who provides useful information leading to the capture and arrest of the person responsible. Members of the public are free to contact the organization with any information.
Similar Case
A 10-week-old puppy was found dead inside a weighted cage and submerged in a New Jersey pond, police say. A $3,500 reward is now being offered for information leading to the arrest of the person responsible.
A rescue officer with the non-profit The Last Resort found the puppy on April 30 in Greenwood Pond, New Jersey.
The rescue officer noticed the cage at the edge of the pond with the puppy inside, according to a Facebook post. The cage had been weighed down with a crystal vase.
The group said in the post that the puppy seemed to be a 10-week-old female Golden Retriever.
“The puppy was dead and ice cold, soaked inside the crate, lake-bed vegetation hanging on the crate, with a crystal vase (notice price tag) and wee wee pads stuck to the side of her head with a small amount of blood on them,” the post read.
West Milford Police Chief Timothy Storbeck and Passaic county Prosecutor Camelia M. Valdes told NJ.com that the incident is currently under investigation.
“At this time there are no suspects or leads,” the police said in a press release.
A complete necropsy will be performed to determine how and when the puppy died.
“We want justice for this little girl,” The Last Resort wrote on Facebook, naming the puppy Jenny. “That is all we can do for her now.”
NTD reporter Tiffany Meier contributed to this article.
