Elk Creek dog thief pleads guilty

Megan Sizemore a/k/a Braun, 37, pled guilty in Texas County Courts to stealing and misdemeanor animal abuse on May 21. The same day, she was sentenced to probation with a suspended imposition of sentence. The felony stealing charge carries a sentence of five years’ probation, and the animal abuse charge has been adjudicated with two years’ probation. 
 
The charges stem from a June 2023 investigation regarding a dog stolen from the victim’s front yard in the Clear Springs area. 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.
 
Sizemore admitted to the victim that she had taken possession of the dog with the intention to send it to be microchipped and neutered, court documents said. The victim reported the activity to Texas County Sheriff’s Deputies. Law enforcement contacted Sizemore about the dog, she told him several differing versions of what had happened to it. The dog was later returned to the victim via the defendant’s boyfriend, as previously reported by Howell County News. 
 
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 goats, on the dog in an attempt to neuter it. According to the probable cause statement, attempting to band a dog can kill the animal. 
 
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