Bertie Man Pleads Guilty to Cruelty After PETA Finds Dog With Chain Embedded in His Neck

For Immediate Release:
February 5, 2026

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Earlier today, Bertie County resident Lionel James Norfleet pleaded guilty in Bertie District Court to cruelty to animals after PETA fieldworkers discovered a dog named Yale tethered on Norfleet’s property, with a heavy metal chain wrapped so tightly around his neck that it had embedded deeply into his flesh, causing a badly infected wound. Norfleet’s sentence includes 45 days of jail time (suspended), 24 months of probation, 30 hours of community service, and a prohibition on possessing animals for two years—and he must forfeit his remaining dog. Photos of Yale are available here.

When PETA fieldworkers found Yale on April 13, 2025, the wound on his neck was bleeding, necrotic, and crawling with maggots. Yale was in pain, lethargic, and could barely lift his head, and he was signed over to PETA and euthanized to end his suffering.

After hearing the Assistant District Attorney’s summary of the case, Judge Thomas Newbern stated that no animal should be chained and that no living creature should be treated the way Yale was. But Yale’s case is far from an isolated incident in Bertie County, and for years, PETA has pleaded with local officials to implement mandatory standards of care in addition to a ban on continuous chaining—but so far, they have taken no action.

“Just this past weekend, PETA found another dog in Bertie County with a chain so severely embedded in her neck that she needed surgery to remove it,” says PETA Director Rachel Bellis. “How many dogs in Bertie County will be left to shiver, starve, and rot away at the end of heavy chains before the Bertie County Board of Commissioners finally pays attention to this issue?”

Last weekend, despite dangerously cold weather, PETA fieldworkers and volunteers visited hundreds of chained and/or penned dogs, delivering insulated straw bedding and doghouses to dogs forced to spend every minute of their lives outside. They regularly find dogs chained or penned without access to food, water, or shelter every day, and in recent years have discovered numerous dead and dying dogs in Bertie County. In November 2025, they found the decomposing remains of three chained dogs, as detailed in this video testimonial. The previous fall, they found the skeletal remains of a dog named Thor still attached to a chain so tangled and twisted that he had been unable to reach food, water, or shelter. The month before, they found a starving dog named Jalynn penned outdoors with nothing but a plastic water container for shelter, and her condition was so severe that euthanasia was needed to end her suffering.

Numerous North Carolina localities have banned keeping dogs tethered outdoors—but Bertie County has not.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow PETA on X, Facebook, or Instagram.