Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
A Tucumcari man ended up in the county jail Thursday on a felony animal-cruelty charge after a police officer reportedly caught him in the act of choking and injuring a puppy.
Ralph Fletcher, 29, of Tucumcari, was booked Thursday into the Quay County Detention Center in Tucumcari on a complaint of extreme cruelty to animals. The charge applies to a suspect who “did intentionally torture, mutilate, injury or poison an animal” or “did maliciously kill any animal.”
Extreme cruelty to animals is a fourth-degree felony that can lead to up to 18 months in prison or a $5,000 fine.
According to a complaint filed Friday in magistrate court by Tucumcari Patrolman Justin Garcia, officers were sent Thursday to the 500 block of East Aber Street to check a report of a dog being beaten.
Garcia stated when he walked up to the residence, he heard a man yelling and a dog whimpering. As the officer approached the side of the house, Garcia stated he heard a dog being choked and gasping for air and a man yelling, “You are going to learn to listen to me.”
Garcia wrote as he looked over a fence to where the dog was kept, he saw Fletcher with his hand around the dog’s throat, choking it. The officer requested that Fletcher back away from the dog, a pit bull puppy. When Fletcher backed away, Garcia stated he saw blood and feces on the porch that had come from the dog.
“Due to the attack the dog was unable to stand on his own,” Garcia wrote. “The dog appeared to be injured with blood coming out of his rectum and seem(ed) to be gasping for air.”
The officer asked Fletcher what had happened. Fletcher said the dog had to learn to not run away from the house. The suspect told the officer before the incident, he had let his dog outside “to use the bathroom,” and the dog ran away. Fletcher chased the animal down in an alley.
Garcia arrested Fletcher, handcuffed him and took him and the puppy to the Tucumcari Police Department. Another Tucumcari officer took the dog to veterinarian Dr. Jean Corey at Tucumcari Animal Hospital to check on its condition. Corey told the officer from an initial visual examination it was possible the dog had suffered a dislocated right hip and prolapsed anus.
Corey said Friday afternoon she wouldn’t elaborate on the puppy’s condition because the ongoing investigation. The puppy still was in the animal hospital’s care Monday morning.
Judge Timothy O’Quinn found probable cause in the case. Fletcher was released from the detention center by court order Friday, according to jail records. No attorney was listed for Fletcher in online court records.