Dog found beaten, tied up in north Charlotte dumpster, investigators working to find suspect

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - The community is pushing for justice for a dog after he was left for dead in a north Charlotte dumpster.

CMPD Animal Care and Control said it is looking for the person responsible for beating young Joey, nearly taking his life and leaving him tied up in the trash.

The animal rescuer said the investigation currently doesn’t have any leads as to who may have left the dog, but she’s confident someone knows something that could help them find the person responsible.

“This is our city, and this happened so close to home,” Chrissy Elder said. “I have had six dogs in dumpsters in the last 30 days.”

Elder created the Forgotten, Now Family Animal Rescue in Charlotte in 2021, and has rescued thousands of dogs over the past couple years. Two weeks ago, she got an alarming call.

“I was shocked just to see how horrific he looked because of how severe this was,” she said. “This was a lot worse than we had ever seen.”

Joey, the pitbull mix, was found tied up by a necktie and left for dead, with plenty of signs that the abuse was not an isolated incident.

“When you look at his CT scans and his x-rays, you can tell that he had broken bones over, and over, and over, and they were in different various stages,” Elder said.

Joey is currently in a safe foster care home, and according to Elder has never lost his love or his spirit.

“Joey was never traumatized, Joey was thankful,” she said. “As soon as he realized people had saved him, Joey never stopped loving.”

The dog may now be getting his happy ending, but it’s far from perfect.

“He will never be completely normal after what they did to him,” Elder said. “He was beaten to the point of losing vision on one side of his face.”

Now Elder is hoping the end of Joey’s story, also brings justice.

“So this was right here in our own city,” she said. “Somebody knows this dog. There’s no way that someone hasn’t seen him out walking, or at the vet office. So we feel very comfortable and confident that we will identify who owned this dog.”

Elder is offering a $2,000 reward of her rescue foundation’s own money for any information that can lead to Joey’s owner, in part because she said animal abuse is something she’s seeing happening more often now than ever.

“If we want to see change happen in Charlotte, we have to be able to go through this process and find who did this,” she said.

PETA is now offering an $8,000 reward, bringing the total reward to $10,000.

Anyone with information about Joey’s case can leave a tip with Animal Care and Control here.

Related: Dog rescued by EMTs after being hit by car in Mecklenburg County

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