PRESS CONFERENCE: Brevard County Sheriff’s Office Arrest Man Wanted In Animal Cruelty Case
By Space Coast Daily // January 26, 2017
ABOVE VIDEO: The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office has arrested 18-year-old Joseph Tyler Pendergrass, of Rockledge, who was wanted for Cruelty to Animals after a video surfaced that showed the suspect abusing a Shih Tuz dog that caused significant leg injury, according to Cpl. Dave Jacobs of the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office.
BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office has arrested 18-year-old Joseph Tyler Pendergrass, of Rockledge, who was wanted for Cruelty to Animals after a video surfaced that showed the suspect abusing a Shih Tuz dog that caused significant leg injury, according to Cpl. Dave Jacobs of the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office.
On Monday, the investigation began when the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office responded to a local boarding facility, where the management team reported the suspected animal cruelty they had discovered, which occurred on Sunday.
Sheriff Ivey commended the management team at this local boarding facility for doing a phenomenal job by immediately alerting law enforcement once realizing that an animal in their care had been abused.
The dog, was immediately taken to a local veterinarian clinic who evaluated the pet and determined that it had a broken leg.
According to authorities, the owner of the Boarding Facility was extremely alarmed that the dog had been injured while in the facility’s care and immediately initiated an internal investigation to determine what had occurred.
As a result, the owner and management team reviewed video surveillance footage that showed the dog being abused by, Joseph Tyler Pendergrass, a former employee of the facility.
After reviewing the video footage, the owner immediately contacted Law Enforcement.
A Brevard County Sheriff’s Office Animal Cruelty Investigator was called to investigate the incident, which culminated yesterday where a county judge issued a warrant for the arrest of Pendergrass for cruelty to animals, according to Cpl. Jacobs.
Sheriff Ivey stated “I want to be clear in stating and reassuring our community that the owner, manager, and other staff members of the local boarding facility did absolutely nothing wrong and in fact are heroes in my eyes for not only investigating what had happened to this innocent pet, but in also reporting the crime and working closely with our Animal Cruelty Unit to make sure that the offender is never around helpless animals again.”
The incident was captured on video surveillance footage and depicts the extremely graphic and violent act of Pendergrass abusing the animal.
Pendergrass surrendered to our Agents in Orange County this afternoon and was transported to the Orange County Jail pending extradition to Brevard County.
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to please contact the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office Animal Cruelty Unit via the Sheriff’s Office Communications Center at 321-633-7162 or CRIMELINE at 1-800- 423-TIPS (8477)
You can also visit crimeline.org or text ‘crimeline’ plus your tip to CRIME (274637).
All information to CRIMELINE is confidential and you may be eligible for a reward.
ABOVE VIDEO: Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey asked the public for assistance in locating Joseph Tyler Pendergrass and footage from the violent animal abuse that took place. (BCSO video)
