Community horrified, outraged over dog's cruel death

WORLAND – A medium-sized, black and white, adult female dog that recently had puppies was found bound and weighed down in the Highland Canal near the corner of Road 13 and Lane 17 in Worland about 9 a.m. Wednesday morning.

“It (dog) was about six tenths of a mile north on the canal off of Lane 17,” Washakie County Sheriff Steve Rakness said.

Charles Getzfreid first found the dog as he was helping another canal rider that morning and after finding the dog he got his wife Jamie to help him get her out of the canal. “My husband was pulling the checkboard and there was an iron pipe about two inches around and about a foot long attached to a rope. When he pulled it up, the dog went underneath the check and started tumbling around and he noticed that the rope was attached to the neck of the dog, cinched around her neck. The rope was yellow and about two feet long, the kind of rope that you tie up hay with and her front paws were tied together with white twine so that she couldn’t swim,” Jamie Getzfreid said. “We can’t tell where she was put in at because the canal is long. It almost looked like they did it on purpose as far as hooking the pipe around the check board. I don’t want to make assumptions but … I guess it’s possible that the dog simply floated over the check board and the pipe got caught on it,” she added.

No one knows how long the dog was in the canal but Rakness estimated that she was in there three to five days.

Concern has been raised on Facebook that this act of cruelty could lead to worse crimes but the sheriff’s office doesn’t share that concern. “It appeared to me that somebody just didn’t want the dog and instead of taking it to the humane society, did that. It’s too bad that people have to resort to that instead of going to the humane society and giving the dog away. They are not human enough to take care of the dog in a sensible manner. Or there are a couple sick individuals out there that just wanted to see an animal die,” Rakness stated.

A reward fund has been organized by community members for the name, arrest and conviction of the person or persons who did this. “Right now we have $1,500 - plus with more money coming in,” Reward Fund co-organizer Wendy Baird said. “If the person or persons who did this cannot be found, the money will be returned to the givers,” she added.

The Washakie County Sheriff’s Office has received numerous calls mainly about donating to the reward fund. “I have nothing to do with the donations for the reward,” Rakness said.

Wendy Baird said a fund has been established at Security State Bank for donations for the reward. The account name is “Faith.”

When the person or persons who are responsible are caught, they will be charged with a crime. “Felony cruelty to animals among other things,” Rakness said. “Which could give them up to a year in jail plus fines,” he added.

A large number of revenge and death threats have been posted on social media towards the person or person who did this. “No one has to do that. If people want to get justice for the dog they can contact the sheriff’s office with any information and let us handle it or make donations to the New Hope Humane Society so people know that they can go there to take care of their unwanted animals instead of them (people) doing this stuff to them (unwanted animals),” Rakness said. “Please do not plaster any people you may know that might be suspects over the Internet or anything like that. Come and tell me or the sheriff’s office,” he added.

“We need to get this out to as many people as possible. Someone saw this dog in someone’s yard. Someone knows who owned this dog,” Baird said.