SOUTH SALT LAKE — South Salt Lake police arrested a man Tuesday afternoon after he allegedly beat a dog on a table in his backyard.
Casey R. Bowman faces a third-degree felony charge of torture of a companion animal.
Police responded to a home near 3100 S 500 E after receiving a report of a man beating a white dog. The witness reportedly heard yelps from the animal and saw the suspect hitting and pushing down on the dog with all his weight.
Officer Gary Keller, South Salt Lake Police Department, said the man’s alleged actions warrant a felony charge.
“Something this egregious, where he’s beating on a dog, to the point it was torture, yeah it’s going to be a felony,” he said.
Police said the witness took photographs of the alleged incident, which helped them identify the suspect, as his face and arm tattoos were visible in the photos.
“In the photographs which I viewed, the suspect appeared to have an angry face while physically beating the dog. The suspect then dragged the dog by the back of the neck and dragged him to the house,” an officer said in a probable cause statement.
The dog, Angel, has been removed from Bowman’s care, but the dog's future is uncertain.
“And as you can see Angel is a cute puppy and hopefully the dog will not be returned, but that’s got to go through the court process, but Angel may be up for adoption in a couple weeks,” Keller said.
Bowman also faces misdemeanor charges of driving on a denied license and failure to appear.
