GENESEE COUNTY (WWJ) – A Flint Man has been charged with first-degree animal abuse and had other dogs taken from his home after an animal rights activist found his pitbull mix within hours of dying because its collar was too tight.
Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson on Wednesday laid out the details of two disturbing cases of animal abuse in the Flint area, including 33-year-old Darrontae Johnson.
Swanson said Johnson was arrested last month after members of the Michigan Pitbull Education Program found his 1-and-a-half-year-old pitbull mix, Beretta, tied up on a chain and bleeding from the neck.
The collar was so tight that it had “cut right into the skin,” Swanson said. The dog had deep tissue lacerations and was within 24 hours of bleeding to death, according to the sheriff.
A volunteer with MPEP reported the dog’s condition to animal control, who notified the sheriff’s office. Johnson is out on bond, according to a report from MLive, but could face up to four years in prison if convicted of first-degree animal abuse.
The dog was rescued from the dangerous situation and was saved by a vet, while four other dogs were removed from Johnson's home, Swanson said.
Swanson says the Michigan Pitbull Education Project is an “active group that goes around with other animal activists on Sundays” helping dogs in need. He said the group feeds dogs and warms them by putting bedding down.
He described the group as “animal rights vigilantes” and said if it wasn’t for their tenacity, the dog would have died.
“To everybody out there, not only in the county but in the state and the country, that rise to the level to go out and take care of other peoples’ animals, on a Sunday afternoon, I give you great credit,” Swanson said.
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In a separate case Swanson detailed on Wednesday, 36-year-old Terry Key of Flint has also been charged with first-degree animal abuse after video captured him stabbing a woman’s dog to death because he thought she was responsible for a violent domestic dispute he encountered.
Swanson said cases of animal abuse often have a “direct connect between those that abuse, torture, neglect and fight animals to those that do the same thing to humans, to children, to the vulnerable.” He claimed six out of 10 mass shooters have a history of torturing animals.
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