HOUSTON – A video showing a man choking a puppy by dangling it by its collar on Monday in Spring Branch is now being investigated by the Houston Police Department.
The video, which has since been seen thousands of times on social media, shows a shirtless man walking down Long Point Road in Spring Branch.
While walking in front of a business, the puppy stops and tries to sit in the shade. This is when man on the other end of the leash yanked the dog towards him, lifting the dog off the ground as he wrapped the leash around his hands, choking the puppy.
“At that point I was in tears. It just makes me sad,” said Maria Salazar, who was filming the incident.
Salazar tells KPRC 2’s Gage Goulding that she first saw the man when he was screaming at the dogs outside of her home. When the screaming didn’t stop, she followed the man while recording. She saw him hurt the dog three different times, all while holding another dog in his arms.
“He was hanging from his neck,“ she said. ”And he would grab him from his jaw and he would scream to him and I didn’t understand why he was screaming.”
She called 911, but the guy was long gone. Her husband posted the video on social media, where Callie Clemens watched it.
“Horrified,” Clemens said of the video. “Especially knowing it was so close to where I live.”
Callie runs a group on Facebook called Lost & Found Pets of Spring Branch in Houston.
She sprang into action to help find the two puppies. For hours she and her teammates camped in the area where the pups were last seen, only to find them in a shopping cart being pushed by an unknown woman.
Callie Clemens: “The woman stated that she’s had them and tried to find them a home for a long time, which didn’t make sense. So, at that point, I just said, ‘Grab on, let’s go.’ And then we took them.”
Gage Goulding: "And she just let them go?"
Callie Clemens: “I think she was tipped off with the video because it went a little viral.”
The dogs spent night at Callie’s place before being transferred to Houston’s BARC team.
There an animal cruelty investigation was opened and the Houston Police Department was notified.
“Both dogs have Hookworms and Roundworms. One has healing abrasions on its rear paw pads. Otherwise, they appear to be doing well,” a BARC spokesperson told KPRC 2.
The Houston Police Department is now investigating the video.
“We see that so often and people got to know that we’re going to find them,” Clemens said.
The dogs will be transferred to the Rescued Pets Movement where they’ll be made available for adoption.
You can support their efforts by visiting their website.
