JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Another disturbing case of animal cruelty is under investigation in Duval County after a young pit bull terrier was found tied to a tree and shot multiple times. Animal Care and Protective Services said the case is not one of neglect, but a violent crime, and investigators are asking for the public\u2019s help to identify whoever is responsible.<\/p>\n
The dog was discovered in the San Marco area. Authorities said the condition of the scene and the injuries indicate the animal was intentionally harmed.<\/p>\n
Chief Michael Bricker of Animal Care and Protective Services emphasized the seriousness of the case, saying, \u201cThere\u2019s no reason to hurt an animal.\u201d<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n Investigators said the blue and white pit bull terrier was restrained, left helpless, and ultimately killed. A community member who spoke about the incident expressed heartbreak, saying, \u201cIt\u2019s just terrible cause I\u2019m, I mean, I\u2019m a am lover. I have. I\u2019ve had many dogs and cats.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Bricker, the investigation began when an officer responded to a report of a dog tied to a tree. \u201cOne of our senior officers, Officer Cooper, got the call that there was a dog tied up to a tree,\u201d Bricker said.<\/p>\n The dog was taken to the animal shelter, where veterinarians examined him. Bricker explained, \u201che brought the dog back, uh, to the shelter. Our vet looked over the dog, and we did an X-ray, and we confirmed that the dog was shot multiple times.\u201d<\/p>\n ACPS released an X-ray showing damage to the dog\u2019s upper spine, along with a photo of the location where the dog had been tied. Images of the dog itself were blurred due to their graphic nature.<\/p>\n In a Facebook post, Animal Care and Protective Services wrote, \u201cThis is one of the hardest posts we\u2019ve ever had to share.\u201d Officials said the post was made public to raise awareness and seek the community\u2019s help in identifying the person responsible.<\/p>\n The officer who found the dog named him Valor. A memorial has since been placed at the tree where he was discovered.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n ACPS officials noted the case follows another incident earlier this year involving a Great Dane that was abandoned and died of starvation. The owner in that case was later arrested.<\/p>\n Bricker urged pet owners who can no longer care for their animals to seek help instead of resorting to neglect or violence. <\/p>\n \u201cJust post your pet online. You can bring to a shelter, a rescue organization. There\u2019s so many people in Jacksonville that will help you out with your pet if you want to rehome,\u201d Bricker said.<\/p>\n Bricker added that ACPS is making cases like this public to hold offenders accountable. \u201cAt ACPS, we\u2019re publicizing it. We\u2019re not letting people get away with this anymore,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Authorities said it remains unclear whether the dog belonged to someone. Animal Care and Protective Services says tips can be submitted anonymously and urges anyone with information to come forward.<\/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":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Another disturbing case of animal cruelty is under investigation in Duval County after a young…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[18751,18749,18747,1749,49994,969,116,118,117,634,49993,9475,1224,49992],"class_list":["post-93680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-acps","tag-animal_care_and_protective_services","tag-chief","tag-cooper","tag-hps","tag-jack","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-local","tag-michael_brigger","tag-nicholas_brooks","tag-officer","tag-valor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93680","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=93680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}