Man turns himself in to police after dog buried alive dies
A man in his 40s turned himself in to provincial police Thursday, one day after a dog that had been buried alive died of his injuries.
The man faces a charge of animal cruelty, an offence under the Criminal Code, said Sgt. Claude Denis of the Sûreté du Québec.
“It was the suspect himself who contacted the police,” Denis added. “He was released with a summons to appear in court at a later date.”
The man lives in St-Pauld’Abbotsford, 68 kilometres southeast of Montreal, the town where the dog — a boxer nicknamed Sugar Ray — was found Tuesday whimpering and yelping beneath the earth by a passerby.
The dog’s paw had been sticking out of the fresh topsoil. The passerby dug Sugar Ray out of the ground and discovered that he had been wrapped in a sheet.
Veterinarians at the Montérégie SPCA tried in vain to save the severely dehydrated animal. News of Sugar Ray’s plight elicited adoption offers from across Canada.
Initially, the Montérégie SPCA held out hope the dog would survive, reporting on its Facebook page that he was eating and drinking water on his own, had regained some feeling in his legs and was able to lift his head. An accompanying photo showed an image of Sugar Ray with bloodshot eyes and an IV tube inserted in his front right leg.
By Wednesday afternoon, however, the dog was struggling to breathe. The vets gave him a shot of adrenalin, installed a breathing tube and carried out cardiac massage, but were unable to save him.
“Our beautiful boxer whom we named Sugar Ray … fought so hard to survive,” the SPCA said in a statement, adding that at the time of his death he “was surrounded by the people who loved and cared for him — the vet techs and veterinarians of the Chambly Veterinarian Hospital. We are heartbroken, as we know everyone will be.”
Linda Robertson, the organization’s director, had said that it appears that someone had attempted to strangle the dog and had hit the animal on the head with a blunt object.
Denis said police are continuing their investigation by examining the dog’s remains further.
It’s not clear at this point how the suspect knew the dog, Denis added. At first, Sugar Ray was mistaken for a bullmastiff.