from: statesman.com
By Julie Chang
American-Statesman Staff
Police have charged a Northeast Austin man with animal cruelty after he tethered his dog, which police say led to its death in February.
According to an arrest affidavit, a neighbor reported that a dead dog was hanging by a chain over a fence in the 9000 block of Kendal Drive near Dessau Road and East Rundberg Lane on Feb. 16.
Police said in the document that the dog appeared to have climbed on its dog house next to a chain-linked fence and then jumped over the neighbor’s six-foot wooden fence. The dog’s tether got caught between the wooden slates of the fence and she hanged herself, police said. Police said there were numerous scratches on the wooden fence that showed the dog “slowly choked to death.”
The dog’s owner Leroy Joel Clement, 59, admitted that he tethers his dogs and that he tethered Miracle the day of the incident, the affidavit said.
Clement has been warned and cited several times since 2008 about tethering his dogs, which violates city ordinance, the affidavit said. It also said that he was offered fencing assistance if he took a class on responsible ownership of a pet, which he never attended.
Clement has been charged with cruelty to non-livestock animals, a state jail felony. He has not been arrested in connection with this case.
The story has been updated to correct Leroy Joel Clement’s name.
No comments:
Post a Comment