'You're hanging him': Woman charged after horrific video of dog being choked
WARNING - DISTRESSING CONTENT: A woman has been charged after a viral video of a pet owner kicking and choking a dog sparked outrage on social media.
The footage was filmed in a Florida car park on Friday (local time) by a concerned member of the public, Vincent Minutello, who asked her to cease tugging on the animal’s lead so hard as it appeared to be choking the dog.
The video, uploaded to Facebook, showed the woman using a lead to lift the dog off the ground several times as it struggled to breathe.
Mr Minutello then approached the woman and asked she “go a little easy on that dog please”.
She laughed and asked if he “wanted him”, to which he responded: “No, but you can’t do what you’re doing... you’re choking him, you’re hanging your dog.”
The woman argued she was “not hanging him” and indicated if the dog stayed in a certain position, he would not get pulled because “that’s how collars work”.
“You can’t do that, not when he sitting there and you’re holding him by his neck,” Mr Minutello responded.
He suggested she “put him up for adoption” because she could “not take care of him like that”.
In an update to his post, Mr Minutello said a woman had been arrested by Tarpon Springs Police Department and was being held on a A$7000 bail.
“She is facing felony charges. The dogs are safe and being held until the investigation is over,” he wrote.
Police said Michelle Sieber, 26, who was “apparently transient and resides in her camper-type vehicle with two dogs” was arrested the same day they received the complaint about the video, Tampa news site WFLA reported.
Both dogs were seized and transferred to animal control, police said.
Ms Sieber was identified as the daughter of Rea Sieber, a Tarpon Springs city commissioner, and apparently often slept in her RV at the back of her mother’s wine shop.
Rea defended her daughter and claimed she had been dealing with mental health issues for many years.
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