North Carolina Woman Deliberately Tied Puppy To Truck, Drove Around Until It Died

A woman from Garner, North Carolina, has been charged with cruelty to animals, DWI, and communicating threats (towards police and EMS workers) after tying a small puppy to the front of her pickup truck and then driving around, dragging the dog along until it died.

Police said that the atrocious incident occurred on Thursday, July 5, around 9:30 p.m., in the parking lot of the Knights Inn in Selma, North Carolina, reported WBTV News.

Eyewitness Vikki Latner told CBS 17 News that she had seen the woman hit and abuse the pup earlier that evening.

“She couldn’t even walk. She was stumbling everywhere,” she recalled.

Latner said she was about to call the police when she saw the woman tie the canine to the truck’s front bumper and then take off.

Several other people at the motel also witnessed the woman performing the torturous act and tried desperately to stop her.

In the police report, it was written that “there was a lot of screaming in the background” of the 911 call made for help.

According to Latner, one brave person got in front of the vehicle to try to stop her madness, but she then put the truck in reverse and crashed into two U-Haul trucks.

The culprit, identified as 45-year-old Gloria Mitchell, was “hostile and aggressive” towards members of the police and EMS teams when they finally arrived on the scene.

Mitchell “had a very strong odor of alcohol coming from her person as I was able to smell it from several feet away,” it is stated in the cops’ official report, which also said her blood-alcohol level was.347, more than four times the state of North Carolina’s legal driving limit.

Additionally, she was said to be high on both methadone and marijuana.

The animal abuser reportedly tried to flee the scene, saying it wasn’t her behind the wheel, but video footage of the crime obtained by the police clearly show her dragging the puppy around.

CBS 17 News reporter Amy Cutler visited Mitchell’s home, but no one answered the door when she knocked. There were several dogs in her yard, though. Food and water had been left out for them.

“Whether it’s a puppy, a bird, a child — it’s a life. Why?” wondered Latner, who said her husband buried the puppy’s remains.

Mitchell was booked at the Johnston County Jail on July 8. She is scheduled to appear in court later this month.