NASSAU COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 A Bryceville man was arrested and charged with sexual activity involving an animal after allegedly having sexual relations with a female pitbull, says the Nassau County Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n According to NCSO, investigators recieved information from Nassau County Animal Services (NCAS) regarding the situation at a Bryceville home. When detectives arrived, a witness stated that he observed 68-year-old James Franklin Piner restraining the dog and engaging in sexual activity with her after checking on Piner following recent knee surgery.<\/p>\n According to the witness, he heard the dog cry out several times from across the house and saw ongoing bleeding and signs of injury for multiple weeks. A second witness stated that Piner admitted to engaging in sexual acts with the dog.<\/p>\n NCSO says NCAS evaluated the dog\u2019s safety due to the continuous blood flow four weeks into her cycle. The dog, Bella, was removed from the home and is receiving appropriate veterinary care.<\/p>\n In a briefing, Sheriff Bill Leeper spoke about the case and the circumstances surrounding it. \u201cThis is an extremely disturbing and gut-wrenching case involving the sexual assault of a defenseless animal by a demented, nasty, and sick individual,\u201d Sheriff Bill Leeper said. \u201cAnyone capable of committing such an act on a dog poses a serious threat to humans as well.\u201d<\/p>\n NCAS\u2019s Director also spoke on the case and how the community can help in situations such as this. \u201cIt is our responsibility to protect those who cannot protect themselves,\u201d NCAS Director Steve MacKinnon said. \u201cThis case underscores the importance of community members speaking up. The adage \u2018see something, say something\u2019 certainly applies and saved an animal from ongoing cruelty.\u201d<\/p>\n NCSO says Piner was booked into the Nassau County Jail and Detention Center. His bond is over $15,000. Bella will remain in NCAS staff care and will be adopted into a safe and loving home.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASSAU COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 A Bryceville man was arrested and charged with sexual activity involving an animal after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176389,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[344,353,83381,83380,347,28,348,116,351,118,117,3898,349,350,346,345],"class_list":["post-176388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-action-news-jax","tag-animal-cruelty","tag-animal-sexual-activity","tag-bryceville-man","tag-cbs47","tag-florida","tag-fox30","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-fl","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-nassau-county","tag-northeast-florida","tag-southeast-georgia","tag-wfox","tag-wjax"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}