An Oxford man was arrested last week on charges he left his German shepherd tethered outside in “extremely cold weather” without food or water.
The dog — which cops said was underweight and had frostbite and heart worms — is in the custody of the town, who will be looking to find a new home for him, state police said.
Its owner, 26-year-old Jonathon Foster, was charged with cruelty to animals, tethering and confining a dog for an unreasonable period of time, failure to license, and failure to vaccinate.
Foster is scheduled to appear at Superior Court in Derby March 1.
In a prepared statement, state police said that about 2:30 p.m. Friday (Jan. 22), a trooper was sent to Foster’s Governor Hill Road home after cops received an anonymous complaint about the dog being neglected.
The person told cops he noticed the dog “is always tied up and left outside even in extremely cold weather and that at night he can hear the dog dropping his food bowl on the ground over and over,” state police said in the statement.
The trooper saw the dog “was very thin, (and had) unkempt and had patchy fur, consistent with a neglected animal.”
There was also no food or water within reach of the dog’s five-foot leash, state police said.
The trooper and Jeff Haney, a member of Oxford’s Board of Selectmen, took the dog to the Beacon Falls Animal Hospital.
There, a veterinarian examined the animal “and found it to be a blatant starvation/neglect case,” state police said.
“Aside from being 20 – 25 pounds underweight, the dog had various medical issues to include frost bite damaged ears and heart worms,” the state police statement said.
