A woman was drinking coffee in her backyard on Sunday morning when she saw a boy tape a puppy's mouth closed and then hurl it down a 20-foot embankment into a drainage ditch, she said.
Around 10 a.m., Mary Ybarra saw the 14- or 15-year-old boy lean over a small mixed-breed puppy in the 600 block of Rexford Drive.
“I thought he was walking the puppy and bent down to pet it, but he was putting tape on it,” Ybarra said. “Then I saw him throw the puppy up in the air. I was in shock.”
As the boy ran away from the ditch, Ybarra said she yelled, “I saw you; I know what you did.”
The puppy, a caramel-colored mixed breed about 6 months old, was tossed like a cartwheel off of the side of a drainage ditch, said San Antonio Police Officer James Phelan. The dog's back right leg looked like it had been dislocated, Phelan said, but the dog was otherwise uninjured.
Police are looking for the boy, who Phelan said lives nearby and will get caught. He faces a charge of cruelty to animals.
“He's going to face me if they find him,” Ybarra said. “How do they raise these kids? He tried to kill that puppy.”
Ybarra asked Animal Care Services, who took the puppy to treat its injuries, if she could adopt the dog after it had healed. ACS representatives said they will make the arrangements.
