A Violet man was booked on charges of aggravated cruelty to his dog after a video showed him putting on a boxing glove and beating the dog until the animal appeared to be unconscious, St. Bernard Sheriff Jimmy Pohlmann said on Monday. The video released by the Sheriff's Office shows a man lifting a pit bill off the ground by its neck and then taking her to the trash, which the dog apparently had scattered across the kitchen floor.
The owner then tells the dog to look at the trash, and then begins to hit the dog with the boxing glove on his left hand.
The dog, named Tiger, continues to cry out as she is hit, the video shows. The owner then throws her across the room and then picks her up again and slams the dog down hard on her back.
The man filming the video on his cell phone calls out throughout for the other man seemingly to stop, although at times the man filming the incident seems to laugh. The man filming the video also seemingly warns the dog's owner that he might be killing his dog.
The video concludes with the owner telling the dog to dare get in his trash "one more time."
"The illustration of this video is very disturbing. In my 30 years of law enforcement I never saw an incident such as this captured on video and I would caution viewers to watch," Pohlmann said. "It is very graphic and disturbing and it could be disturbing to some viewers."
Asani Woods, 21, of the 2400 block of St. Matthew Circle, beat the female, grey pit bull in December and was taken into custody last month, according to the Sheriff's Office.
The video shows Woods repeatedly hitting Tiger's head and body. After the blows, Woods picks up Tiger, who looked unconscious, and smashes her to the floor.
Pohlmann on Monday called the video "a graphic scene of cruelty to an animal" who basically was defenseless after the first blow.
"You hear often times about pit bulls attacking individuals, you know, well, this is probably one case where you would like to see the pit bull defend himself, with such a brutal attack," Pohlmann said.
Under questioning from sheriff's officials, Woods expressed surprise he had been brought in and shown the video, dismissing it as "me disciplining my dog," Pohlmann said. The dog apparently had created the mess in Woods' kitchen.
"Yeah that was me. What you going to arrest me because I beat my dog because it shit and pissed all over my house?" Woods said to his arresting officer, according to the police report.
After several days of investigation, deputies learned that Tiger apparently had survived the December attack and that Woods, in January, had brought Tiger to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals office on the West Bank.
That agency reported a pit bull named Tiger was euthanized there in January, saying the owner had complained the dog was overly aggressive. Pohlmann said Woods told sheriff's officials that he indeed had taken Tiger to that facility.
While Woods lived less than half a mile from the St. Bernard office of the SPCA, Pohlmann speculated that Woods might have taken the dog to the West Bank location "to conceal it outside of the parish."
The video was found on the cell phone of a drug suspect who was one of Woods' neighbors. Woods was arrested March 28, after he was identified as the man in that video, according to the Sheriff's Office. Woods was being held on Monday in St. Bernard Parish Prison in lieu of a $100,000 bond.
The video was found on the cell phone of Johnny Dominick, 21, also of the 2400 block of St. Matthew Circle. After Dominick was booked on drug charges, he admitted he had videotaped the dog beating, according to Pohlmann.
Dominick, who was one of three men booked March 26 on drug-related charges, also was booked on a charge of being a principal to aggravated cruelty to the dog. He was out of jail on Monday on a $135,000 bond.
Dominick was arrested in Violet along with two other Violet men, Kordell Moore, 20, of the 2700 block of Guerra Drive, and Alvin Duplessis, 44, of the 2600 block of Daniel Drive, who both also were booked on drug charged. Moore was released on a $60,000 bond, according to the Sheriff's Office.
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