Humane society seeking tips in dog torture, death

The Humane Society of Yuma is seeking tips leading to the arrest of the person responsible in the torture and death of a dog near Somerton last week.

A Border Patrol agent found the body of the young, female, tan shepherd mix with bailing wire tied around her neck on a canal bank at County 10-1/2 Street and Avenue G on Friday, the humane society said.

The dog, believed to have been a stray, had been sodomized with a crutch and was in the water at some point before being found dead. The sequence of the events in the dog's torture have been not been determined, the humane society said in a news release, "but we do know the animal suffered terribly."

The exact cause of the dog's death was undetermined.

"We need to make sure this person cannot harm another animal or person again," humane society spokeswoman Elkie Wills said in the release. "This is a brutal crime that can't go unnoticed, and we hope the public feels the same and turns this person over to the authorities."

To report tips in the incident, call the humane society at 782-1621, Ext. 106.

Yuma County sheriff's spokesman Capt. Eben Bratcher said the incident is being investigated as a felony case of cruelty to animals.