KISSIMMEE, Fla. – A 79-year-old man was arrested after a small dog was found injured and later euthanized following an apparent disposal in a dumpster, Osceola County deputies said.
Deputies responded Saturday after an employee heard an animal crying and discovered the dog inside a dumpster behind the business on Cypress Parkway. The dog was taken to a veterinarian and was humanely euthanized because it had suffered a skull fracture, according to a news release.
Surveillance video showed a man exiting a pickup, lifting a dog from the truck bed, placing the animal in a cardboard box, and tossing the box into a dumpster. Deputies posted photos of the dog on social media, where it was identified as Max, a Jack Russell terrier mix believed to be about 10 years old. They later located Victor Manuel Carrion-Flores, 79, and interviewed him at the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office, the news release states.
“He could not tell deputies where the dog was located and that he was ‘too busy to deal with the dog being injured and that he would eventually pass away due to his injuries’”, the news release states.
Deputies said Carrion-Flores denied harming the dog, but because he did not seek medical care for an obviously injured animal, he was arrested on a charge of aggravated animal cruelty, causing excessive pain or death. He was booked into the Osceola County Jail.