Dog set on fire in Laurel County

LAUREL COUNTY, Ky. (WTVQ) — The Laurel County Fire Department confirms a dog was set on fire October 21st.

Dispatch says the 911 call came in around 3:30 that afternoon.

The Laurel County Fire Department and the sheriff’s office were called to the scene at the end of Green Meadow Road, according to dispatch.

One of the dog’s owners says his name was King.

“I mean we loved this dog and we can’t believe someone would torture him like this,” says Angelicque McQueen, sister-in-law to the owners.

Paula Scott, a neighbor in the area, says she’s the one who called 911 when she saw a cloud of smoke getting bigger and bigger at the end of the cul-de-sac.

After fire officials came to put out the flames, Paula says she came down and saw the dog.

“I find this poor, little dog tortured, just tortured,” says Scott. “It was awful.”

Paula says she then took it upon herself to bury King and placed a white cross at his grave. She posted photos of King on her Facebook page trying to find the owners and they came knocking at her door the next day.

McQueen says her family came out to the grave site where King was buried and dug up his body to take to the University of Kentucky’s lab for a necropsy because it’s not known at this time if King was burned alive or died before being set on fire.

The preliminary results show severe burns to his body and a puncture wound in his head, but no bullet was found.

“To think that what he went through, I mean what was going on, how much pain he suffered is unfathomable,” says McQueen.

Laurel County Dispatch says a deputy was called to the scene but the Laurel County Sheriff’s Office says no report has been filed.