A 45-year-old man has been arrested in California on suspicion of animal cruelty after he intentionally drove his car over the pint-sized Chihuahua pet dog.
Michael David Parker, was arrested on suspicion of animal cruelty after the pet dog Cow Cow was found lifeless in a back alley in Hawthorne.
His heartless act was caught by two surveillance cameras. Police released a disturbing surveillance video that they say shows Parker driving his sedan straight over the dog and then zooming away.
Video showing the back of the car shows 5-year-old Cow Cow writhing on the road until he turns motionless.
Parker was arrested on Friday on suspicion of felony animal cruelty, police said.
"It's shocking. You never expect to see a little animal like that run over and left there to die without the driver even looking back," Hawthorne Police Lt. Scott Swain told the New York Daily News. "It wasn't an accident. He purposefully did it."
Swain said Parker admits he was in the alley that afternoon but claims he didn't mean to harm the defenseless dog.
The dog had been staying with a neutral third-party after Parker and his wife recently split up, he said.
"There's not indication it was tied to a domestic dispute," Swain said. "We spoke to the wife, and she didn't know it had happened. She didn't give any indication it might have been payback."
Parker posted USD 20,000 bail and was ordered back to court for arraignment on March 25, the report said.
