Suspect Arrested After Dog Tossed Over Razor Wire at Cell Tower
A man was arrested in Winchester, California, on January 12 on suspicion of willfully abandoning his dog, after video from December was released showing a dog being thrown over razor wire at a cellphone tower.
Riverside County Animal Services said Robert Ruiz Jr, 30, was arrested at an address in Winchester and taken by a Riverside County Sheriff’s deputy to the Southwest Justice Center, “where he was booked on an allegation of felony animal cruelty and a misdemeanor for the suspected abandonment.”
CCTV footage from December shows a man pick up a dog and hurl it over the razor-wire-topped fence around a cellphone tower. “The dog’s back paws [clipped] the razor wire,” animal services said, before a “hard landing on the dirt.”
The dog, an eight-year-old male pit bull mix named KO, was microchipped and this allowed officers to trace the suspect.
Ruiz is also suspected of abandoning a second dog that Animal Services officers were trying to locate.
“We were all extremely disturbed to see such a careless act committed against an innocent animal,” Riverside County Animal Services director Erin Gettis said. “This incident was very shocking.”
KO was taken to the Western Riverside County/City Animal Shelter in Jurupa Valley for care and is now available for adoption or transfer to one of the county’s partner rescue organizations, according to Riverside County Animal Services. Credit: Riverside County Animal Services via Storyful
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