Oconee County authorities are investigating after a small dog was hanged from a metal pole in a man’s front yard.
The dog, a 4-year-old Chihuhua-Dachshund mix named Big Boy, was left outside tethered to a metal planter overnight, the Athens Banner-Herald reported.
The dog’s owner, 40-year-old Marshall Lee Shubert, had been staying with a friend in the Birchmore Hills subdivision. He told the paper he left the dog outside Monday evening because his friend had a 30-pound Maine Coon cat and they were concerned it could become aggressive toward the 4-pound dog.
The next morning, the homeowner walked outside to find his friend’s dog dead, hanging from a pole he used to hang his plants.
“Someone strangled him and hung him up ... I did touch him and saw how cold he was,” the homeowner told the newspaper. “Rigor mortis had already set in. The line we had him tied to was wrapped around his neck.”
The Oconee County Sheriff’s Office and members of the county’s animal services unit were called in to investigate, Oconee County Emergency Management Agency Director C.J. Worden told AJC.com. Authorities are still working to determine a motive.
“We’re still trying to get to the bottom of it,” Worden said Friday. “The dog is deceased and it did not die of natural causes. The what is pretty well figured out. It’s the who and the why that we’re trying to determine.”
Authorities took control of Big Boy’s body for a necropsy as part of the investigation, Worden said.
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