FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A man who had been drinking bit his mother’s Shih Tzu in the face, ripping the dog’s eye out of its socket, deputies said.
Palm Beach County Sheriff’s deputies responded an animal hospital in Lake Worth at about 4:30 a.m. Friday about an animal cruelty complaint.
When deputies arrived at the hospital, they found the Shih Tzu, named Cujo, with his eye hanging out of the socket. Deputies said Cujo’s owner told them her son, David Etzel, 36, has been drinking and started teasing the dog.
According to the arrest report, Etzel was picking the dog up by his throat. The dog bit Etzel in the face, and, in response, Etzel bit the dog back. When he lowered the dog, Etzel’s mother could see that the dog’s eye was hanging out of its socket, the report states.
He other son woke up and helped her take the 2-year-old, 9- to 11-pound dog to the veterinarian.
The veterinarian told deputies that she sees this type of trauma when a dog has been hit by a car or attacked by another dog. She said the attack must have been very violent to cause such serious injuries, according to the report.
Back at Etzel’s home in Lake Worth, deputies found him fast asleep, according to the report. He told deputies Cujo bit him, but he would never hurt the dog.
Etzel is charged with animal cruelty. He is being held at the Palm Beach County Jail on $10,000 bail.
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