BY FRANK MAIN Staff Reporter fmain@suntimes.com March 9, 2012 7:48AM
Animal Care and Control workers hold two dogs that were rescued from abusers Friday, March 9, 2012. The pets were part of a group of ten dogs and puppies that were taken from a home in the Far West Side Thursday. | John J. Kim~Sun-Times
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Updated: March 9, 2012 4:24PM
They put duct tape on a dog's testicles and ripped it off.
They suspended a dog in a harness and spun it so fast it looked like a propeller.
They hid newborn puppies from their mother.
And they even forced some dogs to eat their own feces.
That's what Chicago Police say 22-year-old Joshua Moore and a 13-year-old boy did to five dogs and five puppies, putting the videotaped torture on YouTube for the world to see.
Moore told police "it was not a big deal" and he did it because he was bored, prosecutors said in court Friday.
Moore and the boy were arrested Thursday and charged with animal torture and animal cruelty — all felonies. Cook County Judge Donald Panarese Jr. ordered Moore held on $150,000 bail Friday.
The torture came to light when a tipster contacted People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
On Sunday, PETA reported the cruelty to the Fort Wayne, Ind., Animal Care and Control officials after PETA learned Moore was from Chicago but living in Fort Wayne, said Daphna Nachminovitch, vice president of cruelty investigation for PETA.
On Tuesday, officers in Fort Wayne stopped Moore for questioning. He admitted he was in the videos and was released, police said.
"Because of his neck tattoo, it was easy to identify him," she said.
On Thursday, Chicago Police officers arrested Moore after he stepped off a bus from Indiana, Nachminovitch said.
According to assistant state's attorney Erin Antonietti, Moore is seen on video torturing animals in five videos. Moore told police that "it was not a big deal" and that "he was bored and was doing it for entertainment," she said.
In one video, Moore is seen forcing lemon juice down a dog's throat, choking it, Antonietti said.
Moore is also seen throwing a dog in the air twice, then shaking the animal forcefully back and fourth before throwing it in the air again, Antonietti said.
He was also allegedly seen making a dog sit in his or her feces and then eat it.
In one video, Moore put duct tape on a dog's testicles and his friend pulled it off, Antonietti said. Then a cotton ball with alcohol was placed on the dog's genitalia.
A fifth video shows the juvenile allegedly spinning a dog so fast, it is hard to tell what he is twirling around. The dog was on a harness, officials said.
The dogs were rescued Thursday from a home in the 200 block of North Lockwood in the Austin neighborhood. They were placed in the care of Chicago's animal care and cruelty department.
The dogs were Chihuahuas, terriers and mixes of the two, police said.
Police said the videos were made in late January and early February. Nachminovitch said PETA saved a copy of the videos before someone removed them from YouTube. PETA turned over the evidence to police, she said.
Nachminovitch said PETA receives numerous tips about videotaped animal cruelty.
"We see a lot of graphic animal torture but this was systemic and gleeful," she said. "They took a lot of pleasure with the pain and terror they caused these animals."
The suspects identified themselves by name in the videos, Chicago Police spokesman John Mirabelli said. Police say they found items used in the torture during a search of the home on Lockwood, including the harness and a bottle of lemon juice.
Contributing: Rummana Hussain, Sun-Times Media Wire This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Donate to Wikileaks.
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