For Immediate Release:
April 2, 2021
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
Colton, Calif. – In response to a video showing a Colton animal services officer (ASO) failing to pick up a small, injured dog and instead dragging him across the concrete using a choke pole as he urinates involuntarily, gasps for air, and convulses, PETA has rushed a letter to Henry Dominguez, chief of the Colton Police Department, seeking immediate action, including barring the officer from having any contact with animals.
In the video, the ASO can be heard telling a distraught bystander that the suffering animal was “still alive” but “just stressed out” and agreeing that he may have been hit by a car. The officer refused a citizen’s offer for a towel with which to carry the injured dog, prompting PETA to note that if she has an issue with filth or bad odor, she chose the wrong profession. Instead, she tied a slip lead around his hind legs and lower torso while he was lying motionless and clearly suffering and dragged him farther while choking him with a pole.
“This small, helpless dog should have found only comfort and compassion in the arms of animal services staff but was treated abysmally and cruelly, which, if par for the course at this agency, means it’s continually breaking the law,” says PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. “This horrific incident should serve as a wake-up call for the local community, and PETA wants this callous officer—and any others who behave this way—kept away from all animals.”
PETA also requested that any other Colton animal control workers immediately receive training (or retraining) in the humane handling of animals as well as empathy training.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
