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Neighbors upset with police after dog's possible dragging death

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A woman is upset with DeKalb police, after she says, they failed to check on a dog she believes was dragged to death and left on the side of a road.

"(It's) very clear there was a crime here. This dog was dragged. His skin is gone, his legs are broken, and it is a pretty horrific sight," said Alice Pagano, who found the dog along Brown Mills Road in Lithonia. The dog also still had a leash around his neck with a metal wiring.

It is unclear exactly what happened to the dog. No one knows if the dog was run over by a car, or if it was a victim of animal cruelty.
Pagano says when she called police, instead of sending out an officer, dispatch gave her the number to the sanitation department to pick up the dog.

"The fact that the police are not looking into this, it makes me sick because that is one sick person that did this and they are out there and they are probably doing it to another dog right now," Pagano said.

DeKalb County police say since Pagano did not see the dog being dragged herself and because she did not have a corroborating witness, they do not usually investigate dog deaths on the side of the road. Capt. Stephen Fore says the injuries that Pagano described could also be consistent with a dog being run over.

Other neighbors say the dog had been there for days, and no one has claimed it. Several others were also concerned about the dog's death.