Woman finds her four-month-old puppy decapitated
May 19—A Cullman County resident had a grisly discovery when one of her dogs didn't come in when she got home last Thursday. Beretta, a four-month-old female Belgian malinois, had been decapitated and dismembered, said owner Crystal Eubanks.
Eubanks said she left her County Road 813 home in the Spring Hill community at 7 a.m. last Thursday and Beretta was in the pen with three of her German Shepherds. When she got home around 9 that night, she said she fed her two shepherds that were in the house and called for the ones outside to come in. When the other dogs came in through a ramp that leads from the pen into the house, Beretta was not with them. "Usually she's first in line," said Eubanks.
It was also unusual for the puppy to not respond when Eubanks called her. "She cared solely for me," she said.
Thinking maybe the dog had gotten stuck somewhere, Eubanks went to look for her. In the dark, she said she noticed the dog lying in the pen.
"It was dark, so I couldn't see her clearly, but I saw bones sticking out," said Eubanks. She could see the dog wasn't breathing and called a friend to come over. At first, she was concerned that Beretta had been attacked by the other dogs, but they had no marks or blood on them.
The friend confirmed that the puppy was not a victim of a dog attack. The dog's head and right leg had been cut off. "He said it was a clean cut," she said. The head and leg have not been found. Her friend took the rest of the body to be buried, she said.
Beretta had been a Mothers' Day gift to Eubanks, who'd planned on eventually including the dog in her breeding program. She'd gotten the puppy from Tennessee at the end of April, and the two had bonded. "She was my baby," said Eubanks.
Now Eubanks wants to know who would do this to an animal and is concerned that the person responsible could do even worse things.
"I think about how many kids live around me," she said. "I'm afraid if they can go after a dog, the kids could be next."
She thinks the person was familiar with her family and their patterns. "They knew when none of us were home," she said.
She believes whoever killed the puppy took it off the property, killed her and then returned it to the pen. She said a search of the property didn't turn up any evidence of the dog being killed there. "There was no blood on my property," she said.
She also suspects that the killer may have drugged the dogs that were also in the pen with Beretta. One suffered an stomach upset after the incident, but Eubanks said her vet said that could also be a result of stress.
She reported the incident to the Cullman County Sheriff's Office the next day and on Monday, Cullman County Animal Control came out to investigate. Animal Control Director Dwain Floyd said without any evidence, the incident would be considered a "cold case." He said he's only had one other incident in his career that was somewhat similar, and in that case, it turned out the animal had been attacked by other dogs.
Eubanks can't think of anyone who would have targeted her or her husband Jonathan, a National Guardsman and volunteer firefighter, but said she's not taking any chances with her family or remaining dogs. Security cameras have been installed and the dogs are staying inside. "They only go out when I go out," she said.
