A Florida dog owner is under investigation after a video on Facebook shows his pit bull chained to the top of a crate being towed by his truck driving on a highway.
Brenna Cronin of Palm Coast was driving on I-95 towards Daytona Beach this past week when she spotted a dog on top of a crate, which contained another animal, being pulled by a SUV driving at least 70 mph.
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In the video, the dog looks extremely distraught and scared, with viewers able to hear Cronin saying “poor baby.”
Just saw this asshole driving down 95 with a dog with the letter S branded into his right back leg, chained to the top of a cage….does anyone know this vehicle? Got off on 100 going towards flagler, I called the cops and they opened and investigation and have now found the owners, I am so happy this video was able to help these poor dogs out.
Posted by Brenna Cronin on Wednesday, January 11, 2017
“Just saw this asshole driving down 95 with a dog with the letter S branded into his right back leg, chained to the top of a cage….does anyone know this vehicle? Got off on 100 going towards flagler, I called the cops and they opened and investigation and have now found the owners, I am so happy this video was able to help these poor dogs out.”
After the video went viral, with to date it having been viewed more than 2.1 million times, Cronin later posted on Facebook, “This poor baby looked right into my eyes with such fear and sadness,” she said. “Pitbulls are a very misunderstood breed and don’t deserve this kind of treatment.”
With so much backlash, Flagler Animal Services opened an investigation, according to Jeffery Ritter, development coordinator for the Flagler Humane Society.
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Apparently, the owner said this type of transportation was “OK” and his dog didn’t like being in a crate, so he put him on the outside.
Shockingly, in Flagler County, if the dog would have been strapped down with one more rope, there most likely would not even be an investigation. According to a Flagler County ordinance as long as a dog who is traveling in an open bed or in the manner similar to Zeus is being restrained by a “minimum of two tethers or some other similar method to safely control or restrain the dogs from easily escaping the vehicles,” the owner isn’t breaking the law. (There has been a Senate Bill introduced this month that would address this issue on a state-side level.)
“The driver didn’t have any bad intentions,” Ritter told ABC News.”…He honestly didn’t know any better.”
The owner who does not wish to be identified has been cooperating with investigators and will allow wellness checks on the dog.
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