PALM COAST, Fla. (AP) - A Florida teen was arrested on aggravated animal cruelty charges after a friend uploaded two videos on Snapchat that showed him whipping a dog with a leather belt, sheriff’s officials said..
The 16-year-old was arrested early Monday in Palm Coast, The Daytona Beach News-Journal reported.
The teen told investigators that the 7-year-old Pomeranian-type breed named Kush was one of two dogs he cares for, according to an arrest report.
On Sunday afternoon, the dog defecated on the teen’s bedroom floor and the boy became angry when he stepped in it, Flagler County Sheriff’s deputies wrote in a report.
Someone had alerted investigators to the Snapchat videos, which showed the abuse. One was a 14-second video in which the teen hit the dog twice as it yelped for help and tried to get away. The dog bit the teen, the report said.
A 19-second video showed the teen continuing to beat the whimpering dog, while he and a friend laughed, deputies said.
The dog was pinned to the ground by the neck and hit three more times on its backside, the report said.
Deputies traced the video to the 15-year-old friend, who admitted it wasn’t a smart idea to post the incident on Snapchat.
The teen told investigators that he typically uses a belt to discipline his dogs.
The Palm Coast Animal Control seized both of the teen’s dogs and took them to Flagler Animal Hospital to be assessed, the newspaper reported.
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