“I was livid that day,” he said.
Last week a video surfaced with a description that claimed it was Barnecut. The video shows a man lifting his dog up off the ground by the collar with a leash and kicking the animal.
But the person in the video isn’t Barnecut.
The nightmare started Thursday when he got a call.
“Letting me know that I really need to join this group on Facebook because there’s people saying stuff about me,” he said.
He grabbed his phone and couldn’t believe what he was reading.
“People had posted my name, my business’s name, my phone number,” he said. “There’s a lot of people saying that they wanted to come find me and teach me a lesson, physically. People saying I needed to be in jail.”
He says within two hours he had received messages, phone calls and Facebook comments from Lancaster to California.
Barnecut said his family is in the process of selling property in the Lancaster area. He says the man who is living in the house in the video is renting the property from his sister.
Making matters worse, Barnecut’s self-start-up business, Barnecut’s Firearms, immediately saw a decline in sales. He’s sold one since Thursday. He usually sells two per day.
10TV News went to the address associated with the video. The man was not home, but his fiancé let our crew see the dog to show how healthy and strong he is.
The owners said nothing was done to the animal that wouldn’t have been done by any other pet owner, and that the reaction to the video is being blown out of proportion.
“I work very hard,” Barnecut said. “I love my kids and my animals. I would never do that.”
Barnecut said the moral of the story is to always think before you post. He says honest lives, families and businesses are at risk.
“There was a name with a face and people ran with it,” he said. “It was a wrong name but they ran with it.”
Fairfield Area Humane Society Executive Director, Corey Schoonover, says the video was first posted to the humane society’s Facebook page.
He said he has been working with the Fairfield County Prosecutor’s Office and a warrant has been signed to file three animal cruelty charges against the man in the video.
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| The reporter went to the home of the actual abuser. His girlfriend showed them their dog and said her boyfriend "didn't do anything any other owner wouldn't have done". |
According to Schoonover, animal cruelty is a class two misdemeanor. If the man is found guilty, it could carry a $50 fine on each charge, as well as possible other fees, like boarding the animals while in the humane society’s care.
There could also be a stipulation, according to Schoonover, that the owner could not be allowed to own another pet if found guilty.
Barnecut said he is pursuing litigation against the woman who posted his personal information, citing defamation of character and libel.
(10TV - May 27, 2015)
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