SACRAMENTO –Reward money continues to rise for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person who burned a dog to death in a pet travel crate on Wednesday, January 21. Sacramento SPCA officials say a reward figure is now at $17,000 as calls continue to pour in.
The barbarous killing of the little dog shocked members of the community—from the stunned firefighters responding to what they thought was garbage on fire—to the neighbors who heard the dog’s pitiful whimpering–to the animal rights advocates hoping for the dog killer’s quick capture.
When Sacramento firefighters arrived at the scene on January 21 at 12:30 am in front of a fraternal lodge near Watt and Marconi avenues, they quickly put out the fire, but were unable to save the dog.
“Somebody tortured this poor dog, and we need help from the public to catch the person,” the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District posted on its Facebook page after the incident.
The Sacramento SPCA is one of the organizations contributing to the award.
“It’s important that we catch the individual or individuals who committed this crime,” said SPCA CEO Rick Johnson. “The severity of this crime is alarming. The potential for it to lead to other animals or people being harmed is too great —and the animal-loving community has expressed the same concern by contributing to what is now a significant reward.”
Anyone with information is asked to call the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District’s arson hotline at (916) 859-3775.
Willie Bee Turner
Update 2/20/15 – The Sacramento Sheriff’s Department announced that Willie Bee Turner of Oakland was arrested Thursday for the burning of the dog confined to a crate. The 20-year-old is being charged with felony animal cruelty and held on $35,000 bail. The County Animal Control department determined the victim was a under one-year-old mix breed female. They did not state if anyone had collected the reward leading to Turner’s arrest.
