This true story was first reported on Thursday, August 22, 2002.

In reply to:

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Public asked to help ID dog's attacker
Bat-wielding man hit dog 15 times, nearly killing it
By DAN GERINGER
geringd@phillynews.com

The security videotape shows a baseball-bat-wielding man chasing a limping, bleeding dog into a coin-operated laundry. The predator grabs a chair to protect himself and to trap the dog between the washing machines and the wall, then bludgeons the dog with chilling intensity.

The tape shows a horrified laundry cashier threatening to call 911. The man tells her to shut up, and continues beating the dog. Then, he drags the limp animal out by the tail, leaving a trail of blood.

Sgt. Tom Fleming of Southwest Detectives showed reporters the unedited videotape, then appealed to the public for help in catching the criminal.

Unlike the edited version that police released to the public, the raw footage captured the thud of the baseball bat and the piteous yelps of the dog as the perpetrator repeatedly raised the bat over his head and bashed the helpless animal over and over again.

Fleming counted at least 15 blows.

Asked if they wanted to see the unedited tape again, the reporters, all of them hardened veterans, said no.

"It's terrible. Whoever did it is sick. He is sick," the dog's owner, Alicia Robinson, told Channel 10.

"It hurts. We raised Rakim since he was 4 weeks old. It hurts. He's just like a child to us."

She sobbed at the sight of her pet, who was in critical condition.

Ravindra Murarka, the doctor who treated the dog, told the TV station: "When he came in, he was comatose. His whole body was covered with blood."

Rakim broke out of his back yard Tuesday morning. Robinson reported it to the police and the SPCA. That night she found out that Rakim had been savagely beaten.

The crime was captured by a security video camera in the laundry at 36th and Spring Garden streets in the city's Powelton Village section at approximately 8:20 a.m. on Tuesday.

Yesterday, Fleming said the perpetrator, whose motive for the crime was unknown, is a young light-skinned black male - late teens or early 20s. He was wearing jean shorts and a red shirt.

The dog, abandoned by its attacker at the corner of 36th and Spring Garden, was rushed to the SPCA, Broad and Erie.

"The dog is in very, very bad shape. It's jaw was broken," said SPCA spokeswoman Charlene Peters. "One leg was so completely mangled, it will have to be amputated, if the dog survives. We suspect a serious back injury, but we can't determine if that's true because the dog can't walk.

"The owners have been here twice today [Wednesday] and are deciding whether we should put the dog down. They are responsible pet owners and they are devastated."

Peters said that since the story broke yesterday, people have called the SPCA, offering to help pay for medical treatment and offering money towards a reward for information leading to the perpetrator's arrest and conviction.

"If the dog doesn't survive," she said, "we hope to ask those who offered to pay its medical expenses if they want to contribute instead to a reward fund."

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And here is the second part to the story:

In reply to:

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Police Arrest Teenager In Brutal Dog Beatin

Philadelphia, A West Philadelphia teenager, who allegedly beat a dog with a baseball bat in view of a security camera, was behind bars last night after his arrest late Wednesday.

Russell Watson, 17, was picked up around 11:30 p.m. Wednesday on a street corner in the city's Mantua section, not far from the laundromat where police said he struck the dog at least 15 times with a Louisville Slugger on Tuesday morning. Police said that they learned of Watson's whereabouts through an anonymous tip. Watson, who tried to flee from arresting officers, was found in possession of 32 vials of crack cocaine, police said. He faces misdemeanor animal cruelty charges and felony drug charges.

The dog, a 1 year-old pit bull mix, named Rakim, had to be euthanized on Thursday morning after his owners, in consultation with SPCA doctors, decided they did not want to put the severely injured dog through any more pain. They were also concerned about the psychological damage the attack had on the dog, which his owners and SPCA officials said had never shown signs of viciousness. Rakim got out of his backyard Tuesday morning. Police found the battered dog at the corner of 36th and Spring Garden streets.

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There was nothing that this dog could have done to deserve this. Yet, for murdering the dog all the creep gets is misdemeanor animal cruelty charges?

It seems that carrying drugs is more of a crime than murder.

So what is the likely penalty for that charge? Last week a person here was fined £200 (about $300) for leaving a dog in a car without a bowl of water (the windows were only partly open so the car was quite hot). The police smashed the car window to get the dog out and the owner was more concerned about his broken window than the welfare of the dog.

I'm certain whatever punishment /fine he's given will be inadequate, but let's hope that he will also be given some psychiatric help as well. I'm certain the crack didn't improve his mental functioning, either, and I imagine he'll be locked up for a while over that. Maybe while he's in jail and/or a psych ward something can be done.

Unfortunately, we as civilized beings cannot do to this young brute what my gut tells me should be done, but if left alone with him and Louisville Slugger....

And when this fine specimen is released to the streets, as he surely will be, next time we hear about him will be when he assaults his girlfriend with a baseball bat...

It's difficult to know what a fit punishment could be for carrying out such an act of violence and cruelty. We'll have to blame drugs I suppose.

I can't help feeling that any help he gets will not have a long lasting effect and that he will, sooner or later, re-offend in some violent way or other.

Well, for this crime, the murderer is being charged in Juvenile Court, and will stay there until he's 18, which will be in 6 months. But, for the drug charges he gets to be tried as an adult and faces 5 to 15 years for that.

I think it should be the opposite way around.

MsBatt, I agree with you that the punishment will not fit the crime. But the punishment never fits the crime when it comes to cold bloodedly murdering an animal.

I am very upset at this because it could have been a child or it could have been my dog that he did it to.

If it was up to me, I'd slam his head over and over again with a Louisville Slugger. I can guarantee that he wouldn't like one bit, would he?

Telly, I don't blame the drugs, I blame his parents for not teaching him what is right and what is wrong, and for not teaching him respect. And for not teaching him that killing is wrong, no matter what.

He's 17, he knows what's right and what's wrong, but yet he chose to do this. There was nothing mentioning that he was taking drugs, just that it was found in his possession. He could have been dealing the drugs, not using them.

No matter what, what he did was horribly wrong, and he should be punished as if he killed a person. Because that's what he'll kill the next time, a person.

Dakota, you can't blame the parents in every case! You can have parents who bring up four children in exactly the same way, three will turn out fine and one will turn out bad, there is more to it than bad parenting!

Buffy, you're right. The real reason he bludgeoned the poor dog is because he's sadistic, and because he's training to be a serial killer.

Because if laws were the same for animal murders as they are for murdering a person, the murderers wouldn't be getting out anytime soon to murder a person.

Dakota, do you really think it as cut and dried as that? You say that he's 17 and knows right from wrong and chose to do the wrong thing, the world is full of people much older and with much more influence and power who frequently do the wrong thing.

In training to be a serial killer, why? I agree that he should get a severe penalty but not that he is beyond redemption.

Yes, the world IS full of older and supposedly wiser people who do things as bad or worse all the time---but that still doesn't make those acts morally correct. Take me, for instance (or take Dakota, since I know she feels the same way). In response to this young thug's act, I'd REALLY like to beat him with a baseball bat---but that would be just as wrong as what he did to the dog. (Well, NEARLY as wrong.) The difference is, as much as I'd like to do this, I won't. That's a big part of choosing to live as a civilized person---refraining from doing the bad things that one really does want to do.
And I agree that it isn't solely a matter of how he was raised. I really worry about people who have so little empathy with other creatures that they can bear to so badly mistreat another living thing. I can't go as far as Dakota and consider this as murder, but---maybe Society has a right to protect itself from such savages thru captial punishment. After all, if he were a rabid dog, we'd put him down without a second thought.