Ogden police removed five pit bulls from the home of Valentin Zavala. He was charged with multiple counts of animal cruelty and neglect.
"They just weren't beating them they were holding them up by ropes and chains by their throats and just pummeling them, kicking them, bouncing things off their heads, their faces,” says Michelle who didn’t want her last name revealed.
One neighbor who didn’t want to be identified actually video taped the beatings using his cell phone. It was a sight that made him angry and turned the video into police.
It appeared that Zavala either didn’t notice neighbors watching or didn’t seem to care because several witnessed the beatings.
"It didn't look like a typical dog swatting a dog for something he did wrong,” says Alora who also didn’t want her last name revealed. “It looked like he was actually meaning to hurt it."
Michelle says the sight made her cry.
“They bashed the puppy's head off that cinder block it was tied to back there,” she says.
In Zavala’s backyard, one could still see the cinder blocks where the dogs were tied. Neighbors say the dogs were on short leases, often tied to the fence or a cinder block.
“The conditions were bad,” says Michelle. “They had no shelter, no food, water. They were on chains less than a foot long.”
Animal control was called in and rescued the five pit bulls. But neighbors claim there were many more pit bulls that just disappeared.
“Then dogs started disappearing or looked really sick and all of a sudden they were gone,” recalled Michelle.
As for Zavala, he's now facing 13-counts including animal cruelty and neglect. A spokesman for the police department says Zavala wasn’t charged with felonies because the injuries to the dogs were not life threatening.
(ABC4 - July 9, 2014)
He sounds like a dog fighter. So the question is, since these pits were raised to be mean, will the county put them down like they should?... Or adopt them out to the community? I'd bet money that they adopt them out.
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