By Caitlin Williams
LAWTON, OK (RNN Texoma) - A boy was caught on surveillance video beating a family’s dog on Sunday and now Lawton Animal Welfare and the Lawton Police Department are investigating.
“I saw him pick my dog up, slam him on the ground, punch him and hold him between his legs. With my footage, slamming my pet on a privacy fence, flinging him in the air and beating him with a large blue tote. And not to mention the baseball bat,” owner David Winbush said.
You can see that abuse in the surveillance video as the dog is thrown in the air multiple times. Most of the video is too graphic to show. In the video, the boy coaxes the dog out, picks him up, takes him to the backyard and punches him several times. This is just a few seconds of the hour-long beating.
“My first reaction when I seen it, I looked right at my wife and said Candace, look away, I know where Sprockett is,” Winbush said.
After viewing the surveillance video, Winbush recognized the boy and drove to his grandfather’s house. No one was home, but hours later, Winbush made contact with the boy’s family. They came and watched the video around 10:30.
Sprocket was still missing at that time.
It wasn’t until midnight that the family found the four-pound Dachshund underneath a shed in the backyard, with a piece of concrete laid over his body.
“He is heavily medicated. He will not move, when he tries, he falls over,” Winbush said. “He tries to drag his back legs, but he’s in pain. He won’t eat or drink.”
Winbush said the responsibility should be on the boy’s parents.
“I’m pretty angry about the deal. I understand he’s a minor, but it’s going to fall back on the parents,” Winbush said.
Winbush said they have three options: spend up to $4,000 on surgery, let Sprockett heal on his own, which could leave him crippled or put the dog down. But putting him down is an option he does not want to take.
7News has reached out to the boy’s father but have not received a callback.
If you’d like to help with the cost of Sprockett’s surgery a GoFundMe has been set up here.
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