NOTE TO READERS: This article contains graphic, disturbing content.
A Spalding County man is accused of committing a horrific act of animal cruelty against his sister’s dog while it was left in his care for more than a year, police said.
Harvey Willis Smith Jr., 35, of Griffin, was arrested on one count of aggravated cruelty to animals after evidence from his cellphone showed him holding the dog’s severed head, police said Friday. Smith was booked into the Spalding County Jail on Feb. 15 and remains there without bond.
According to Griffin police, officers responded to an animal cruelty call Feb. 6 from Smith’s sister. She told police that she left her pit bull in Smith’s care in November 2019 when she temporarily moved to New York. When she returned to Griffin in March 2021, she did not know what had become of her dog. Police did not say if she was aware at the time that the dog was dead.
Prior to calling the police, the woman borrowed an old phone of her brother’s while waiting to get a new one. According to police, she began looking through the phone and found a series of photos and videos showing Smith killing the dog. There was a photo of Smith holding the dog’s severed head and a video of him working the mouth as if it were talking.
When Smith’s sister asked him about the photos, she told police that he jokingly said he “put it out of its misery.” Smith’s sister called the police and shared the photos and videos, which investigators were able to link to a home on Lake Avenue in Griffin.
A detective made contact with Smith regarding a separate case but questioned him about the dog’s killing, police said. He told the detective that he had not killed the dog but that he had eaten it after it had been hit by a car. Police said the photo evidence they had collected “did not support his account of the incident.”
“This is one of the most disturbing animal cruelty cases I have seen in 30-plus years,” Griffin police Chief Mike Yates said in a statement. “I cannot comprehend the mind of an individual who would commit such acts on an innocent and defenseless animal.”
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