Dog investigation continues

Published 11:00 am Thursday, August 25, 2016

DALTON, Ga. — The inquiry into the reported electrical shocking of a dog by a Dalton Utilities worker remains open as investigators are still conducting interviews, a Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office captain said.

A family member of the dog’s owner said the incident led to paralysis and the dog having to be euthanized. 

“We have interviewed the two Dalton Utilities employees who were there at the time of the allegations,” Capt. Rick Swiney with the sheriff’s office said. “We have also interviewed the worker who previously worked that route, and we are in the process of setting up an interview with the veterinarian who treated the dog.”

Swiney said he did not have a timetable on when the investigation could be concluded or if he expects charges to be brought. 

On Tuesday, Dalton Utilities issued a statement saying an internal investigation showed “no evidence that our worker touched or harmed this pet in any manner.”

A family member of the 67-year-old woman who made the report to the sheriff’s office told WRCB-TV in Chattanooga the 10-year-old Jack Russell Terrier was euthanized after his back legs and hips because paralyzed from being shocked through a fence by the utility worker on Aug. 12. 

According to the incident report filed by the sheriff’s office, Enedina Nieto told deputies while the workers were reading her water meter, a worker stuck a “cattle prong with an electrical current” through the fence and hit the dog in the back of the leg.

The statement from Dalton Utilities said the only tool the worker was carrying was a screwdriver, and that the meter box and the dog were separated by a fence and their worker had no cause to take any actions against the dog.