Man arrested, accused of throwing dog from moving car

SODDY DAISY, Tenn. (WDEF) – A man is behind bars, charged with throwing a dog from a moving car last Friday night. 

This was Dodge after arriving at the Humane Educational Society over the weekend.

A witness told animal control officers that someone threw this dog from the window of a moving car on Dayton Pike and kept going.

Bob Citrullo says they want to “send a clear message to people who are willing to do these acts against animals that this is not going to be tolerated.”

Citrullo says they took the tips and that led them to Filemon Saenz who is now charged with animal cruelty in Soddy Daisy.

Leslie Stokes, an Animal Control Officer, says cases like this don’t always end like this.

Stokes says, “it just depends on if we have the people willing to come forward and not be scared and give us information so that we can investigate it.”

“The public coming together, our officers and their investigation and the police department that were involved we were just so happy that we were able to hold someone accountable,” says Citrullo.

HES says they are grateful for the communities support.

Such a happy pup! @wdefnews12 @HESchatt pic.twitter.com/kAOB7dw6qU

— Amber Worthy (@AWorthyNews) June 14, 2018

“These are innocent animals. They don’t have the voice to speak out so we have to be their voice and that’s why we do our job and investigate it to our fullest and try to prosecute the person that did the crime,” says Stokes.

They hope that this shows the community the importance of speaking up, but also remind everyone of the resources if you have if you can’t take care of your pets.

Citrullo believes, “There are many outlets today. That if you can’t keep or care for your animals anymore come to the shelter. There are many animal shelter around our area that’s the proper thing to do. There is no need for that. Definitely if you harm an animal by tossing it out of a moving car, that’s just outrageous and there’s absolutely no need for that.”