St. Louis Teens Who Posted Facebook Video Of Dog Abuse Are Arrested

St. Louis County Police took two teenage boys into custody Thursday after receiving several complaint calls from across the country regarding a viral Facebook video of the boys beating and slamming a young dog. Stltoday.com reports that the St. Louis County Police Department began getting calls from numerous outraged citizens both locally and nationally at around 12:30 p.m. The report states:

The boys were referred to the county’s Family Court for the charge of animal abuse. They were being held at the St. Louis County Juvenile Justice Center. The animal was taken into protective custody by county Animal Control. A staff member reached there late Thursday afternoon would only say that ‘the dog is safe and there’s an open investigation.’

The two teens were eventually recognized as students of the Riverview Gardens School District, a school district just to the north of downtown St. Louis, when a tipster notified police that they recognized one of the boys. School resource officers from the Riverview Gardens School District took the identified teen and his accomplice into custody shortly after they were identified by the tipster. St. Louis’ CBS Local’s report of the incident states that:

“The video shows a boy who appears to be in his early teens flipping and slamming down a young dog multiple times in a backyard. The dog was seized and is in the custody of animal control.”

The boy that was recognized in the video along with the boy that recorded the incident were both referred to family court for the charge of animal abuse. The video, which runs for 33 seconds, depicts the identified teen performing wrestling-type slams on the dog followed by punching the dog several times on the front lawn of a house. There are several instances of laughter from both teens throughout the video, which is both graphic in nature and language, accompanied by the shrieks of the defenseless animal. The teen carrying out the abuse at first picks the dog up over his head while the dog tries to bite him in defense. The teen then replies; “Ah he tried to bite me!,” before picking the dog up over his head and slamming it on its side. He then repeats this previous action followed by punching the dog several times in the head and side before the video ceases.

The St. Louis video spread all over the country, as evidenced by PIX 11 in New York picking up the story before the boys were taken into custody and stating that:

“Facebook user Coats Keshawn posted the video on Tuesday. His post shows a teen abusing a dog. A person can be heard behind the camera laughing as a young man body slams the pet into the front yard. He then starts punching the animal, over and over. St. Louis police say that are investigating the incident.”

The video was taken down from Facebook on Thursday.