Teh One Who Knocks
03-09-2012, 03:20 PM
By Peter Nickeas - The Chicago Tribune
A West Side man and a 13-year-old boy are accused of spinning small dogs and puppies on their leashes, pouring rubbing alcohol on a dog's testicles and, in one case, biting into the neck of another dog until it cried -- all of it captured on videos that went viral on YouTube.
In one of the videos, the two stop swinging one dog and focus the camera on the dog’s eyes, which "pulsate and rapidly dart back and forth," according to a police report. One of the two bragged that “you couldn’t tell it was a dog” because he was moving as fast as “a propeller.”
In another video, the boy pours rubbing alcohol on a dog's testicles, then applies duct tape and "violently rips the tape off," the report states. "This occurs twice in the video."
Joshua Moore, 22, told arresting officers that "everything shown in the videos was for entertainment purposes and that he did not think he did anything wrong," according to the police report.
Moore is charged with four felony counts of animal torture and eight misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty, police said. The boy is charged as a juvenile with six counts of aggravated cruelty to animals and three counts of animal torture, according to police.
The two were arrested in the 200 block of North Lockwood Avenue in the South Austin neighborhood Thursday night after the group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals brought the videos to the attention of authorities. The videos apparently were taken off YouTube after PETA complained, police said.
After searching the home, police seized five dogs and five puppies, all terriers, chihuahuas or mixes of the two, and placed them with the city’s Animal Care and Control agency. Police said the videos were made the last week of January and first week of February.
“We’re just super relieved these dogs are safe,” said Daphna Nachminovitch, vice president of cruelty investigations at PETA. “On some occasions you never find the person responsible and with this case. . .It was quite clear they’d be subjected to malicious torture by these people. They thought it was funny to torture these tiny little dogs."
On the videos, some of the puppies could be seen cowering while the other dogs were swung on a leash, police said.
The pair also tormented a female dog that recently gave birth by hiding her five puppies around the house and watching the mother frantically search for them, police said. The puppies and the mother were also tossed in the air and landed on their stomachs, police said.
The videos also show the man and the boy trying to force a dog to eat fecal matter. If the dog didn’t eat it, police said, they commented that the dogs “didn’t like it” and grabbed others to try again.
The two also poured lemon juice down a dog’s throat until it started gagging, according to the police report.
A West Side man and a 13-year-old boy are accused of spinning small dogs and puppies on their leashes, pouring rubbing alcohol on a dog's testicles and, in one case, biting into the neck of another dog until it cried -- all of it captured on videos that went viral on YouTube.
In one of the videos, the two stop swinging one dog and focus the camera on the dog’s eyes, which "pulsate and rapidly dart back and forth," according to a police report. One of the two bragged that “you couldn’t tell it was a dog” because he was moving as fast as “a propeller.”
In another video, the boy pours rubbing alcohol on a dog's testicles, then applies duct tape and "violently rips the tape off," the report states. "This occurs twice in the video."
Joshua Moore, 22, told arresting officers that "everything shown in the videos was for entertainment purposes and that he did not think he did anything wrong," according to the police report.
Moore is charged with four felony counts of animal torture and eight misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty, police said. The boy is charged as a juvenile with six counts of aggravated cruelty to animals and three counts of animal torture, according to police.
The two were arrested in the 200 block of North Lockwood Avenue in the South Austin neighborhood Thursday night after the group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals brought the videos to the attention of authorities. The videos apparently were taken off YouTube after PETA complained, police said.
After searching the home, police seized five dogs and five puppies, all terriers, chihuahuas or mixes of the two, and placed them with the city’s Animal Care and Control agency. Police said the videos were made the last week of January and first week of February.
“We’re just super relieved these dogs are safe,” said Daphna Nachminovitch, vice president of cruelty investigations at PETA. “On some occasions you never find the person responsible and with this case. . .It was quite clear they’d be subjected to malicious torture by these people. They thought it was funny to torture these tiny little dogs."
On the videos, some of the puppies could be seen cowering while the other dogs were swung on a leash, police said.
The pair also tormented a female dog that recently gave birth by hiding her five puppies around the house and watching the mother frantically search for them, police said. The puppies and the mother were also tossed in the air and landed on their stomachs, police said.
The videos also show the man and the boy trying to force a dog to eat fecal matter. If the dog didn’t eat it, police said, they commented that the dogs “didn’t like it” and grabbed others to try again.
The two also poured lemon juice down a dog’s throat until it started gagging, according to the police report.