Wheat is facing five felony counts of animal abuse by torture and/or mutilation while the animal was alive.
He allegedly posted a video of himself beating the puppies to death with a baseball bat on Facebook. Officials with the Douglas County Sheriff’s Department reported they received numerous calls from the United States and Canada regarding the video.
The video, dated Aug. 25, reportedly showed the dogs being hit 16 times over the course of one minute, with most of the injured, dying puppies still moving and making noises at the end of it.
A photo of the dead puppies was also allegedly posted, along with the statement “these pups were illegitimate forced upon a beagle at residence while I was away and began too make a mess, in my experience such mess if not handled is latched upon by downgrading individual(s) who want too tear others down, so in essence killing these pups is similar too aborting rape impregnation.” [sic]
According to records, during a search of Wheat’s residence, items matching those seen in the video were found and an area of the home matched a view shown on the video.
The bodies of the puppies were never found, but officers reported there was a female beagle at the residence that appeared to have been nursing puppies. No live puppies were found on the property.
* * * * * *
ORIGINAL STORY:
(KY3 - August 31, 2017)
Authorities have arrested Josiah David Wheat for posting a graphic video of himself on Facebook, beating a litter of puppies to death.
Investigators at the Douglas County Sheriff's Office first saw the graphic video on Tuesday, and they've been working on this case ever since.
The video posted on a rural Douglas county man's Facebook page outraged many, including his friend, Becky Parker.
Parker says, "I got through about 3 seconds of the video. And then I immediately contacted him, and he kept rejecting my calls, and finally he messaged me back and said it was none of my business; I was blowing it out of proportion."
The video shows the puppies being beaten to death with a baseball bat. Parker and others reported it to law enforcement.
Douglas County Sheriff Chris Degase says, "A lot of the evidence is there. The ball bat; we're able to match up the baseball bat; you could read the writing on the video."
"He was combative; he had a 22. We ended up, I believe 96 hour committing him for a mental evaluation, and then really haven't had any contact with him since then. But that incident there was tense. I believe he was tased twice," says Degase.
Parker is shocked by the deadly beating, but also concerned for the man.
"He confided in me; he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, he says, and he never took his medications, ever," Parker says.
"He has no remorse, which kind of unnerved me a little bit. I just want him to get some help. For his safety, I'm glad he's in custody, and for our safety, and all the animals out there," says Parker.
The man accused of making that video is now being held in the Douglas County jail; the sheriff expects charges by tomorrow.
The sheriff says the man gave consent for investigators to search his property, and the Douglas County Sheriff and the Humane Society of Missouri arrived at his home Thursday afternoon in eastern Douglas County.
The man's Facebook page shows an adult female dog with a caption including, "This female canine doesn't have the stress of the vagrant impregnation that was the five pup litter."
It's unclear if he has any other animals. The Facebook page also included recent posts of links about pet euthanasia.
VIDEO NEWS CLIP:
No comments:
Post a Comment