Puppy Kicked, Left to Die

Neighbors say a Wilkes dog owner was extremely cruel to a puppy over the weekend. Daniel Scott Hartley was arrested Sunday. Neighbors tell sheriff deputies they watched him call a small white pit bull puppy to him, and start kicking, stomping, and hitting the dog until it lay motionless in the front yard. Then he climbed into a car and left, inspite of their pleas not to leave the dog in that condition. The dog was dead by the time deputies arrived, but neighbors told them it had survived almost half an hour after the beating.



When Hartley came home, deputies questioned him. His story was that he'd been leaving with a friend, and the firend had backed over the puppy with the car by accident. He says he left the puppy laying on the ground to give it a chance to live. He was arrested and charged with felony cruelty to animals. The dog will undergo necropsy to detemine the cause of death.