Clear Springs area dog stolen, botched neutering attempted
Tue, 11/14/2023 - 2:49pm
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By:
Amanda Mendez, Publisher
An Elk Creek woman is scheduled to appear in Texas County Courts next week on animal stealing and abuse charges. The investigation that led to charges for Megan Sizemore a/k/a Braun, 36, began in June.
Texas County Sheriff’s deputies were investigating a dog stolen from the victim’s front yard in the Clear Springs area. According to court documents, the dog, a male Hanging Tree Cattle Dog, was removed from its collar and lead before being removed from the property by the suspect.
The victim mounted a search for her dog on social media, and eventually made contact with Sizemore, who claimed to have rescued the dog when it wandered onto her property.
According to Deputy Rueden Salazar’s probable cause statement, Sizemore admitted to the victim that she had taken possession of the dog with the intention to send it to be microchipped and neutered. The defendant allegedly promised to try to return the animal to its owner, but then refused to give any information on the dog’s whereabouts or the facility where it had been supposedly taken.
After days of fruitless communication between the parties, the victim approached law enforcement for a resolution. She presented photos that she believed proved her dog was still at Sizemore’s residence.
When Deputy Salazar contacted Sizemore about the dog, she told him several differing versions of what had happened to it.
A male subject contacted the victim via social media claiming to have the dog. This party initially denied knowing Sizemore, but it was later discovered he was the defendant’s boyfriend. Deputy Salazar met the man at a public place and took possession of the animal on the victim’s behalf. The dog was in a poor state of health, looking hungry, dehydrated, and with obvious injuries to its reproductive organs.
After a visit to a veterinarian, the dog was discovered to have a life-threatening infection. The animal had to be neutered. The veterinarian found a band, the size and style used for castrating goat, placed on the dog in an attempt to neuter it. According to the probable cause statement, attempting to band a dog can kill the animal.
The dog was stolen on June 5, and the victim’s conversation with law enforcement about the extent of her dog’s injuries was on June 26. The deputy’s statement is dated August 15.
Charges of felony animal stealing and misdemeanor animal abuse issued against Sizemore on August 29. The defendant was arrested on her grand jury indictment warrant on October 25, and she posted her $1,000 bond the next day.
Her trial before the Honorable John Beger is scheduled for Nov. 21.