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Man, 22, Boy, 13, Arrested For Animal Abuse Posted To YouTube

By Samantha Abernethy in News on Mar 9, 2012 6:20PM

2012_03_09_pug_abuse.jpg
Willee Cole / shutterstock.com
We write a lot about animal abuse here at Chicagoist, but practicing doesn't make it any easier. This story is probably the hardest one we've tackled.

A West Side man and a 13-year-old boy were arrested for abusing small dogs and puppies by swinging them around by their leashes, tossing them in the air and force-feeding them fecal matter. And they videotaped it to post to YouTube.

They videotaped it not because they wanted to be caught, but because it was nothing but entertainment to them. Joshua Moore, 22, told arresting officers that "everything shown in the videos was for entertainment purposes and that he did not think he did anything wrong."

The abuse was detailed in the Tribune's story. An excerpt:

In one of the videos, the two stop swinging one dog and focus the camera on the dog’s eyes, which "pulsate and rapidly dart back and forth," according to a police report. One of the two bragged that “you couldn’t tell it was a dog” because he was moving as fast as “a propeller.”

In another video, the boy pours rubbing alcohol on a dog's testicles, then applies duct tape and "violently rips the tape off," the report states. "This occurs twice in the video."

They also hid puppies from a mother and videotaped her frantically searching for them, and they poured lemon juice down one dog's throat until it gagged. Police seized five dogs and five puppies from the home, all terriers, chihuahuas or a mix.

Moore has been charged with four felony counts of animal torture and eight misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty. The juvenile was charged with six counts of aggravated cruelty and three counts of animal torture. The Sun-Times has a photo of Moore.

The videos have been taken down, but nothing is really erased from the internet. To be thorough in our research, we started to look around YouTube for the videos, but frankly, we were afraid we'd find them. You're on your own if you want to find that. The description is all we can stomach.