McKamey Animal Center is offering a $1,000 reward for information regarding an emaciated dog that was found on on 1100 block of Hooker Road in Chattanooga, Tenn.
He was approximately four years old, white and brindle color, had a red and black braided rope collar and was found inside a plastic dog house at the entrance of D & G Auto Salvage, an abandoned business. He is believed to have been left there between May 10 and 11.
There were no signs of being a fighting dog.
“He had not eaten in quite some time,” wrote Jamie McAloon, executive director of McKamey Animal Center, in an email. “He was down to a skeletal frame. This would have taken several weeks of starvation to get to his point of emaciation.”
The male pitbull died less than an hour after arriving at McKamey Animal Center.
The reward is for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the persons involved in the neglect and abandonment of the dog.
“We were initially offering a $500 reward but an anonymous donor on Facebook has doubled the reward to $1,000,” McAloon wrote in press release.
Anyone with information should call McKamey Animal Center at 423-305-6500 or its tip line at 423-305-6508 or email jmcaloon@mckameyanimalcenter.org.
“We take these cases very seriously,” wrote McAloon. “Someone knows who owned this dog and we intend to locate them for questioning.”
Cruelty to animals is a Class A misdemeanor, and a subsequent conviction is a Class E felony in Tennessee, according to Tennessee Code Title 39-14-202.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation requires anyone convicted of cruelty to animals to be entered in the Tennessee Animal Abuse Registry, a list of all animal abuse offenders. The individual will remain on the list for two years for the first offense and five years for the second offense.
As of Jan. 1, 2016, the TBI lists on its website all individuals convicted of an animal abuse offense after that date.