Lee County man arrested for dumping dog in dumpster

LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. — Lee County officials arrested a man who allegedly threw his deceased neighbors' 16-year-old Shih Tzu into a dumpster behind a Family Dollar store.

It began on Thursday, Dec. 14, when Family Dollar employees noticed that one of the trash bags in their dumpster had something moving inside it. According to a statement from the Lee County Sheriff's Office, the dog, named “Xyla,” had a rope around her neck when employees found her and took her to a pet hospital.

Detectives from the LCSO's Animal Cruelty Task Force investigated and found surveillance footage of the man responsible pulling up to the dumpster, getting out of his car, and tossing the bag with the dog inside. They tracked the car to a nearby residence and, according to the statement, found the man wearing the same clothes he wore in the surveillance video.

Anthony Bellman of Lehigh Acres was ultimately questioned and charged with aggravated animal cruelty.

The LCSO says Xyla is still healing at Lee County Domestic Animal Services as officials are trying to help her find a good home.

To address the growing cases of animal abuse in the region, Lee County has officially created an animal abuse registry, according to NBC 2. 

The system, which works much the same as the national sex offender registry, enters the names of people convicted of animal abuse crimes. The idea is to prevent those people from being allowed to adopt or purchase animals in the future by alerting breeders, shelters, and pet stores of convicted abusers.