CLAY COUNTY, Fla. — The state attorney’s office will be looking at an animal cruelty case out of Clay County after a video of an incident involving a dog has garnered over half a million views on social media.
The video, captured by Private Investigator Brian DeAntonio while working on a different case, appears to show a man hitting a dog with a leash several times before grabbing the dog and dragging it back inside an apartment. He says the incident took place on May 3 in Oakleaf Plantation.
DeAntonio says that in the few hours he had been in the apartment complex lot, he saw the dog bolt out of the apartment multiple times, and decided to whip out his phone. He called the Clay County Sheriff’s Office immediately following the incident.
“Anyone who sees this video is absolutely stunned at what they see,” DeAntonio said. “They said, ‘Yeah, don’t worry about it. We’re going to take care of this.’”
He says that an animal control officer was in the neighborhood on an unrelated matter. Upon taking a look, that officer told DeAntonio he was expecting to get the case since he said it was “definitely animal abuse.”
A few hours later, DeAntonio says he checked in with the CCSO for an update and was told that the dog would be staying at the residence.
“The response was just shocking to me,” DeAntonio said. “It was, ‘It wasn’t a belt as we thought; It was only a leash that he whipped the dog with,’ and some other appeasements that the sheriff made. I was irate.”
He says that after telling his wife about the incident, she advised him to post the video to Facebook. That’s when DeAntonio says “Pandora’s box” was opened.
“I did not expect the response that I received at all, but there are a lot of people out there who love animals,” DeAntonio said. “We’ve been getting responses from not just throughout the country, but throughout the world.”
Between Facebook and Instagram, the post has more than 500,000 views and thousands of comments expressing outrage over the situation.
DeAntonio says that a detective contacted him shortly after.
“When I got the detective on the phone, you could tell he was pretty upset about the exposure this guy had,” DeAntonio said. “But on the same token, he was the only one willing to do anything about it.”
DeAntonio says that the detective was able to “get the man to voluntarily give up the dog.” The CCSO says the dog is now in the custody of Clay County Animal Services.
He says the dog is now being tested for further signs of abuse.
Whether or not the individual shown in the video faces charges depends on the state attorney.
“I’m thrilled that the dog is out of the home and safe, [but] I want this guy to have a mark of animal cruelty,” DeAntonio said. “We don’t want to have this guy having another dog, because otherwise, all I’m doing is taking one dog and replacing it with another.”
We reached out to the CCSO for an interview and were told that they did not have anyone available. However, they say that Clay County Animal Services has the dog in custody as it was voluntarily surrendered, and that this is still an active and ongoing investigation.
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