{"id":2551,"date":"2025-10-14T23:13:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T23:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/2551\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T23:13:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T23:13:10","slug":"community-outraged-after-dog-put-down-due-to-alleged-neglect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/2551\/","title":{"rendered":"Community outraged after dog put down due to alleged neglect"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">VINTON, Va. (WDBJ) &#8211; Outrage is growing online as people fight for justice for a dog that was so severely neglected, he had maggots coming out of his skull and had to be put down. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Meanwhile, a local business operator stated that the outrage is being unfairly directed at his family and business.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Rescuers took the dog, Max, from a home in Vinton after a neighbor reported his condition. An online group called \u201cJustice for Max\u201d is asking people to boycott New York Pizza in Vinton because it said Max was taken from the operator\u2019s mother\u2019s home. However, the operator stated that neither he nor his business had anything to do with this.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cOnce we got Max out of there, we saw he had maggots; he had a large hole in his back filled with maggots. He had maggots that had eaten through his skull, they had eaten through his skull, and they were literally coming out of his nose. They tried to brush him, and nothing but maggots kept coming off of him,\u201d said a member of the Justice for Max group who helped rescue Max and wished to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Max was removed from a home in Vinton late last week after the homeowner signed over rights to a rescue group.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The member of the group, who wished to remain anonymous, said Max was being kept in a pen and was severely neglected.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">They said in addition to having maggots all over him and inside his skin and wounds, the dog also had large sores that were bleeding and oozing on his back. They said his hips were also going bad from being confined in the pen, and he had holes behind his ears where the maggots ate away at his skull.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">After he was examined, a vet determined it was more humane to put Max down.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cThey said it\u2019s kinder to let him go, because he probably wouldn\u2019t be able to make it through the treatment, and it would be harsh treatment for him. He was already older, and he was already in such bad shape, he was very lethargic,\u201d said the anonymous group member.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | text-start article-text\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=61582296831192\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook page \u201cJustice for Max\u201d<\/a> quickly gained more than 1,000 followers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The group is planning a protest near New York Pizza in Vinton on Friday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Organizers said they\u2019re targeting the restaurant because Max was taken from the home of the mother of Giacomo Montuori, who operates the restaurant.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">They claim Montuori and his family were aware of the dog\u2019s treatment and did nothing to help.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cThis should have never happened in the first place. This could have been prevented,\u201d said the anonymous group member. \u201cWe want for him (Max) to not just be another statistic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">However, Giacomo Montuori said that isn\u2019t true. He declined to be interviewed but did speak with WDBJ7 on Tuesday, and said he had nothing to do with the dog and knew nothing about it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">He said his business, employees, and family are being unfairly targeted for something they had nothing to do with.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Montuori confirmed to WDBJ7 that he was at his mother\u2019s home when the rescue group came to take the dog, but said he was just there visiting his mother and did not interfere with the dog being taken. He said he was unaware of Max\u2019s condition.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Montuori provided the following statement to WDBJ7:<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cWe are deeply saddened by this turn of events. We take these allegations very seriously and are sorry that this happened. The dog was not owned by an owner or employee of NY Pizza. We have sought legal representation and are investigating this matter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The Vinton Police Department confirmed it is investigating what happened to the dog for a possible animal neglect case, but said it couldn\u2019t provide any additional details about an ongoing investigation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2025 WDBJ. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VINTON, Va. (WDBJ) &#8211; Outrage is growing online as people fight for justice for a dog that was&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2552,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3121,3122,1958,3120,3119,9,11,10,3124,3123],"class_list":["post-2551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-animal-abuse","tag-animal-neglect","tag-dog","tag-dog-neglect","tag-justice-for-max","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-pizza","tag-vinton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}