According to police on April the 29th 2015 a local resident discovered the corpse of a German Shepard mixed breed dog floating in the Welland River near the Illuminaqua Stage. Initially it apeared that the dog may have been shot and then trussed and bound with an electrical cord before being placed in the waterway. In spite of considerable social media interest in the incident, in the days after the discovery of the body, there were no calls to the Welland SPCA or the NRPS with information about what had happened to the dog.
As part of the investigation into this matter a Post-Mortem examination was conducted on the body. The examination revealed that the dog had been a young to middle-aged adult, which suffered from significant malnourishment. The necrospy further revealed that the dog had not in fact been shot, but had suffered a traumatic injury from either blunt or sharp force trauma. More cruelly still, it appears that the dog was alive when it entered the waterway as pathological findings of the lung tissue strongly support the cause of death of the dog being drowning.
Detectives from 3 District in Welland are now working together with SPCA Investigators and conducting a criminal investigation to determine who is responsible for this heinous crime and to hold that person accountable. Evidence has been seized for DNA analysis and investigators continue to search for persons who may have knowledge about this matter.
Investigators are mindful of research in the fields of psychology and criminology that suggests people who commit acts of cruelty to animals don’t stop there – many of them move on to their fellow humans.
The Welland SPCA will be offering a reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for the killing of the dog. Details of the reward will be posted in the near future on the Welland SPCA website.
Persons with information about this matter can call (905) 688-4111 ext 3355 for D/Sgt. Manney, ext 3344 for D/C Wegelin or the Welland SPCA for Inspector Ryan Hurrman.
