Cartersville police have arrested a local man on a felony charge of aggravated cruelty to animals after authorities say he left a severely decayed dog in a crate at another residence.
Officers booked 29-year-old Jaylen Dion Gregory of Brookside Court into the Bartow County Jail on October 15th.
According to the Cartersville Police Department field case report, an officer responded that morning to a harassment call at a home on Pine Crest Drive. The complainant reported that Gregory, identified as the husband of the complainant’s girlfriend, arrived overnight and placed a severely decayed dog inside a crate near the back door, then covered the crate with a blanket.
The report states the woman had moved in with the complainant around June amid divorce proceedings. Gregory later told officers the couple had gotten the dog about three years earlier at her request. He said she could not take the dog when she left in June, that he fed it only occasionally afterward, that it was still alive when she moved out, that he heard it whine for a time and then stop, and that the dog died because he did not feed it.
An animal control officer and the reporting officer checked on the cats at Gregory’s residence; they appeared healthy. Officers arrested him without incident.