Dog's torture death 'sick'

A young pit bull was found tortured to death yesterday, hanging by a leash from playground equipment at an Olney rec center.

Whoever killed the year-old, female dog hanged her so that her back paws were only about an inch from the ground, said George Bengal, director of law enforcement for the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

The dog's back paws were bloody because she'd scratched them while trying to reach the ground to save herself, Bengal said.

The PSPCA is offering a $1,000 reward and the Humane Society of the United States has put up another $2,500 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of whoever killed the dog, posthumously named Flora by PSPCA.

Anyone with information should call the PSCA anti-cruelty hotline at 866-601-SPCA.

The dog was found about 9:30 a.m. at Barrett Recreation Center, at 8th Street and Duncannon Avenue, by PSPCA animal-welfare agents directed there by an anonymous-tip call, said Liz Williamson, director of public relations for the PSPCA.

"This is a very sick individual, because they hung [Flora] just about an inch from the ground," Bengal said.

"They literally tortured the dog to death," he said.

A necropsy showed that the dog had been strangled, rather than being hung up after dying from some other cause, Bengal said.

There were no marks on the pit bull to indicate whether she had been used in dog fighting, he said. Animals too timid to fight are sometimes killed, according to animal-welfare workers.

The PSPCA makes a practice of naming animal-abuse victims, Williamson said. Other recent victims that survived include Sticky, the duct-taped cat; Rudy, the pit-bull puppy set on fire; and River, a dog rescued from the Schuylkill, she said.

But another pit bull fell victim to a similarly horrendous death in January 2008. That animal was tied to a railing at an abandoned school and stoned with chunks of concrete and bricks.

People who want to help abused animals can make a donation in Flora's name by visiting www.pspca.org.