RICHMOND, Va. — A Virginia man has been charged with felony animal cruelty after police said he set fire to a pit bull at a Richmond park. The dog later died.
According the Richmond Police Department, Jyahshua A. Hill, 20, was arrested Monday in connection with the Feb. 10 incident at Abner City Park, where the dog "was tied to a chain-link fence, doused with a flammable liquid and set on fire."
The male pit bull was taken to Cary Street Veterinary Hospital for treatment of the burns, which covered more than 40 percent of his body, police said. The dog, whom officials named Tommie, died Feb. 15.
>> Read the Police Department's Facebook post here
Witnesses told police that a man "wearing multiple layers of pants" fled the scene afterward, Richmond Animal Care and Control said at the time.
Animal control officials offered a $25,000 reward in the case, according to WHSV. State lawmakers also passed "Tommie's Law," which takes effect in July. It will enact "harsher penalties for anyone convicted of animal cruelty" in Virginia, the station reported.
If convicted, Hill could face a $2,500 fine and a five-year prison term, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.
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