A Texas man has been arrested for breaking into an animal shelter and releasing practically 150 canines from their cages earlier than escaping within the shelter’s van.
George Paul Jones, 38, is accused of breaching the Abilene/Taylor County Animal Companies constructing in Abilene, Texas, on Friday morning. Jones allegedly climbed the fence surrounding the shelter, broke in via the roof and opened most of the cages on the canine aspect, based on a release from the Abilene Police Division.
He uncaged “most of the over 150 canines within the shelter,” police stated. Brutal preventing broke out among the many freed animals, killing one canine and injuring a number of others. A number of canines escaped the property via an out of doors gate.
Numerous components of the constructing had been broken, together with its workplace space and the roof the place Jones allegedly entered, stated police. He made off from the scene in a van owned by the shelter.
Brandon Bell / Workers/Getty Pictures North America
Officers tracked him down after finding the stolen van, based on an arrest report obtained by Newsweek. The automobile was initially reported as an deserted car, with Jones’s pockets and a photograph ID inside. However when officers returned to research the van, the pockets was gone. They set as much as seek for suspects and located Jones, carrying a key to the 2017 Ford Transit van.
“Jones confessed to breaking into the animal shelter, letting all of the animals out of their cages, stealing the animal shelter’s van, and breaking into the vacant AEP constructing close to the place he deserted the stolen van,” stated the arrest report.
He was arrested and charged with the break-in, animal cruelty and theft of a motorcar. Jones is being held on the Taylor County Jail on $45,500 bond.
Animal cruelty, legally outlined as any motion or neglect that causes pointless ache and struggling, is a felony in Texas. The crime is punishable with as much as 10 years in jail and a advantageous of as much as $10,000, based on the McAllen, Texas-based Tijerina Regulation Agency.
Abilene’s ALL KIND Animal Initiative called the break-in and subsequent turmoil “horrific,” including that even after animal service employees, police and volunteers rallied to recapture and take care of the canines, a number of animals stay unaccounted for. The group has arrange a medical fund for the injured canines.
It is not the primary time an animal shelter break-in has made the information.
In April, a surveillance digicam captured two individuals using bolt cutters to break locks on the Jurupa Valley Animal Shelter in Riverside County, California, earlier than stealing three canines.
In the meantime, in March, an Oklahoma lady was arrested after breaking into an animal shelter hours before her dog was set to be euthanized. The lady’s pit bull had been impounded for biting incidents and a canine struggle.
And in 2018, a U.S. marine was charged with animal cruelty for breaking into the Palms-N-Paws Animal Shelter in Twentynine Palms, California, the place he allegedly stole two canines.
Newsweek reached out to Abilene Animal Companies for remark.
