POLICE BLOTTER: Destin man Tased, charged with kicking bulldog, picking it up by the throat

MIRAMAR BEACH – A 24-year-old Destin man was charged with animal cruelty after a group of women told deputies he was abusing his English bulldog.

About 11:45 p.m. Aug. 6, at the Village of Baytowne Wharf, the women saw the man kicking his dog in its side, according to a Walton County Sheriff’s Office arrest report. The dog wasn’t on a leash.

The man, who was “extremely intoxicated,” tried to pick up his dog but dropped it, the report reads. Deputies asked him where his leash was, and he said not to worry. They insisted he was in no condition to drive, and offered to call him a cab.

The man said he didn’t need any help, and said he was going back to his car with his dog, according to the report. The deputies again told him he couldn’t drive, and the man responded, “(Expletive) you, you’re not taking my dog.”

The man grabbed the bulldog by the throat, picked it up and almost fell over, the report reads. The deputy asked him to put the dog down so he wouldn’t injure it.

“(Expletive) you, you’re not taking my dog,” the man said again to the lawmen. “Why are ya’ll harassing me?”

He dragged the dog by the back of its neck toward the parking lot, stopped and “squared off at” one of the deputies, the report reads. The deputy pulled out his Taser, and warned him to back off. The man said, “What, are you going to shoot me? (Expletive) ya’ll.”

The man then grabbed the dog by its right-front and rear-left legs and jerked it off the ground, and the dog tried to bite him, according to the report. The deputies demanded he put the dog down and told him he was being arrested.

Each deputy grabbed one of the man’s arms as he resisted, the report reads. They were between two parked cars, while the man was on top of the dog, which was still trying to bite him.

One of the deputies fired his Taser at the man’s chest, and he was handcuffed and checked out by paramedics.

The man was charged with first-degree misdemeanor animal cruelty, as well as resisting an officer without violence and public intoxication.