{"id":347389,"date":"2026-07-21T15:42:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T15:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/347389\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T15:42:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T15:42:08","slug":"hillsborough-man-arrested-accused-of-kicking-and-hitting-dog-deputies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/347389\/","title":{"rendered":"Hillsborough man arrested, accused of kicking and hitting dog: Deputies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/752334658_2510803089435910_87870995761961235_n.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"764\" height=\"432\" loading=\"eager\" fetchpriority=\"high\" data-v-653d32e2=\"\"\/> article <\/p>\n<p data-v-653d32e2=\"\">Courtesy: Hillsborough County Sheriff&#8217;s Office <\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">TAMPA, Fla. &#8211; Romar Carter, 23, faces an aggravated animal cruelty charge after deputies said witnesses saw him hitting and kicking his dog with a leash Sunday night in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox13news.com\/tag\/us\/fl\/hillsborough\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Hillsborough County<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>   Hillsborough County animal abuse <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WTVT\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">What we know:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Witnesses reported seeing Carter abusing his dog just before 10 p.m., according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff&#8217;s Office.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">People nearby could hear the dog yelping while Carter hit and kicked the animal with a leash.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">When questioned by deputies, Carter said the dog, named Moon, had been &#8220;in trouble&#8221; earlier. Investigators found the injured dog walking with a limp inside a backyard kennel.<\/p>\n<p> Sheriff&#8217;s office statement <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WTVT\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">What they&#8217;re saying:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">&#8220;Animals depend on us for care and protection, and there is no excuse for this kind of cruelty,&#8221; Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said. &#8220;At HCSO, we will always protect the most vulnerable and hold those who abuse animals accountable.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p> Animal cruelty arrest charges <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WTVT\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">What we don&#8217;t know:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Officials have not released information on the dog&#8217;s specific medical injuries or current health condition. It remains unclear if Carter faces additional court dates or has posted bond.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p> Animal Services custody transfer <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"WTVT\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">What&#8217;s next:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Deputies arrested Carter and charged him with aggravated animal cruelty. Hillsborough County Animal Services took custody of the injured dog to provide care.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"group-source-paragraph\" data-v-4fbf7207=\"\">The Source: The information in this story was gathered from the Hillsborough County Sheriff&#8217;s Office, who provided details about the arrest and investigation.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox13news.com\/tag\/us\/fl\/hillsborough\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Hillsborough County<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox13news.com\/tag\/crime-publicsafety\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Crime and Public Safety<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"article Courtesy: Hillsborough County Sheriff&#8217;s Office TAMPA, Fla. &#8211; Romar Carter, 23, faces an aggravated animal cruelty charge&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[630,47,629,115,135,137,136,628],"class_list":["post-347389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-crime-publicsafety","tag-fl","tag-hillsborough","tag-news","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347389","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=347389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}