Sheriff 'Just Horrified' by Video of 4-Year-Old Repeatedly Tossing Puppy in Street

This is a screenshot of a video showing a 4-year-old boy repeatedly throwing a puppy in the street. The video has sparked outrage among anti-animal abuse groups seeking tougher animal cruelty laws. (Photo: YouSignAnimals.org petition site)

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Animal-control authorities in a southeast Michigan city are trying to find a new home for Tippy, a puppy a 4-year-old repeatedly threw in the street while being filmed for an online video that was viewed by thousands of Facebook users worldwide.

Genesee County Sheriff Robert Pickell saw the video on Sept. 4 and was “very disturbed” by what he saw, he told the MLive/The Flint Journal. He immediately launched an animal cruelty investigation.

“I looked at the video, just horrified,” Pickell said.

It depicts the young boy toting Tippy, an 8-week-old puppy, to the road, then throwing the pooch in the street. The dog gets up, runs back to the yard and the behavior repeats several time. The dog is shown twisting in the air, then landing on his feet, his back and his head.

According to the Animal Advocacy And Protection Site, which has started an online petition calling on Congress to strengthen laws against adults who knowingly allow children in their care to abuse animals, the video was posted on Facebook along with the caption, “the neighbor kid got a puppy last week.” The video appears to no longer be available.

It’s unclear who was filming the video, which was shot near the Flint home of the 4-year-old’s grandfather, who owns the puppy. The boy was there with his mother, according to news reports.

The online public apparently has a voracious appetite for such video, which Pickell said had thousands of shares. He posted a comment about the incident on his own Facebook page, he said, and though no video was attached, the comment was shared about 75,800 times.

Some of the viral traffic may have come from Anti Animal Abuse – Known Animal Abusers Facebook page, which links to the online petition that had garnered nearly 3,000 signatures by midday Tuesday.

In addition to asking Congress to approve legislation holding adults fully accountable for what a child does to an anima,. the petitioners also think licensure should be required before any citizen is granted guardianship over an animal.

“There are three things happening in this video,” the sponsoring Animal Advocacy and Protection group wrote on the petition site. “First the child doesn’t know how to properly handle a pet. Secondly, the parents are not supervising either the child running into the road, or the interaction between the child and the puppy. And finally, the neighbor is standing there video taping it, but not intervening on the puppy’s behalf.

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So far, no charges have been filed. The sheriff’s department, Genesee County prosecutor’s office and Flint Police Department are continuing their investigation into the incident to determine if criminal charges will be filed against any of the adults present at the time the acts occurred.

Tippy wasn’t physically harmed, and was given a clean bill of health by veterinarians and deemed ready for adoption.

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