Casey Collins, an 11 year Richmond resident currently residing in Church hill, wants folks to be on the look out for man who appeared to have abused a dog on the street.
Casey Collins, an 11 year Richmond resident currently residing in Church hill, wants folks to be on the look out for man who appeared to have abused a dog on the street.
Collins was walking his dogs with his girlfriend near St. John’s Church, along 25th street, when they heard someone yelling and screaming. The two of them waited a bit to see what the ruckus was and sure enough a man covered in face tattoos, fitting the description of what Collins said was a ‘pan handler’ or traveler person, appeared with a dog in tow.
“We saw him hit the dog with an object (a roll of wrapping paper),” Collin said. “He was really wailing on [the dog].”
Colin stood their dumb founded, but his girlfriend’s “instincts kicked in” at which point she started shouting “Animal Abuse!”
The man heard her screams and started to head a different way. Another neighbor spoke with Collins, saying he saw the same man kick and beat his dog shortly before he came into Collin’s view.
Unable to sit easy with the idea of a dog being abused, Collins caught up with the pan handler.
“I’ve been around people who were tweaking and obviously fucked up – and it was more than apparent this guy was tweaked and not right,” Collins said of his initial interaction with the man.
Needless to say, unsure of how the man would respond to any more aggressive action while possibly intoxicated, they let the man and his dog go.
“This is the only time I’ve seen [animal abuse] so incredibly blatant,” he said. “It was disturbing.”
The following day Collin’s girlfriend spent the day canvasing the neighborhood with flyers (top image) trying to alert locals to the pan handler and his possible history of dog abuse.
The dog pictured is not the actual dog who was being abused, but Collins said it looked similar – a white pit bull with black spots.
A police report was filed, and Collins has spoken with local animal support groups like RingDog Rescue, but he just wants to get the word out about what could be something awful.
Keep your eyes peeled in Church hill.
Below is the flier being passed around with contact information for police as needed:
