A man is facing animal cruelty charges after investigators said a witness saw him dragging a dog from his truck by its collar.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release that a driver reported seeing a man dragging a white French bulldog mix by her leash and collar from his vehicle on Oct. 9. The witness told police he caught the suspect’s attention, believing it to be an honest mistake, but that “the suspect stopped his vehicle, picked the dog up off the ground and threw her in the bed of his truck then drove off.”
The witness took a photo of the dog being dragged by the truck before the suspect pulled it inside.
Deputies identified the suspect as Lisandro Arellano, who agreed to turn the dog, named Blanco, over to Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control. In the news release, deputies said their investigation revealed that Blanco did not belong to Arellano, who had been watching the animal for a family member.
Deputies said that when they interviewed Arellano, he told them the dog must have fallen out of the truck while he was driving, and he was treating the animal’s injuries, WPBF reported.
Investigators said that Arellano did not, in fact, get Blanco treatment for her injuries. In the news release, deputies accused Arellano of allowing “Blanco to repeatedly suffer in pain, over the course of four days from the injuries she sustained.”
County officials took Blanco to the vet, who said she needed treatment or infection could spread throughout her body, according to an arrest report obtained by WPBF.
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