Metro Detroit animal control employee under investigation after vulgar text
MACOMB COUNTY, Mich. (FOX 2) - A disturbing video has many in shock and anger, where an adult man can be seen kicking a dog at his apartment in Sterling Heights.
The backstory:
J.D. Carnes lives in the same apartment complex and says in August 2024 he looked out the window, and saw the kicks and decided he needed to video this.
"So many kicks got to the point where before I could start recording I just screamed at the window ‘knock it off,’" he said. "You want that to happen to you? And he says come down here and do something. I called the cops."
The police did arrive and made an arrest. The man had his day in court, but J.D. never knew. And because of his love for animals, he was insistent on seeing it through.
So, trying for five months, J.D. finally posted the video and reached out to the county animal control.
The video ended up getting 30,000 views in just two days.
In a direct message on Tuesday on Facebook, with a county worker, he seemed to be getting the runaround again.
"If you love animals, and you work at a place like that, you’re going to help somebody, and you're not going to turn them away," J.D. said.
The response from the county employee was vulgar.
What's next:
The Chief of the Macomb County Animal Control received a copy of the vulgar text and responded:
"Macomb County has taken immediate action, and we are in the process of performing a thorough investigation. If substantiated, there will be severe consequences up to and including discharge."
"We have a constitutional right of freedom of speech. The government can’t infringe our speech. We don’t have the freedom to say whatever we want on the job and have there be no repercussions," said Criminal Attorney William Barnwell.
The message J.D. says is that the man who kicked the dogs should not have the animal.
"We need to put these people in jail, and they do not get to walk free and keep their animals after they attack them," J.D. said.
The Source: FOX 2 talked with J.D. Carnes and the Chief of the Macomb County Animal Control.