Lowell, NC: Police: Man Beat Pit Bulls, Killed

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Posted: 4:26 pm EDT April 19, 2010
Updated: 6:24 pm EDT April 19, 2010

LOWELL, N.C. -- A Clover man is facing animal cruelty charges after police say he beat two pit bulls Sunday, causing one to die.
Matthew England, 25, is charged with two counts of animal cruelty. Police said he dragged the two dogs down a street and then beat them.
• VIDEO: Police: Man Beat Pit Bulls, Killed 1
Several bystanders called 911 to report seeing England beating the dogs.
“He’s carrying them by their throats down [the] side of the road,” one caller said. “He looks like he’s killing those dogs.”
“[He’s] beating a pit bull that’s done been hit by the car,” another caller said. “He’s just beating it.”
England was in court Monday and said he would hire an attorney to defend him.
England told Eyewitness News the pit bulls broke free from his gated yard, and he then chased them onto nearby Interstate 85. He said he was angry at the dogs for running away and hit one of them, but not hard.
England said a friend drove up and he gave one of the dogs to him to drive home. That dog survived, but the one that came home with England did not.
The friend who stopped to help said England should go to jail.
“I think he ain't even a human,” the friend, who did not want to identified, said. “That's a monster. No man should treat no animal like that.”
He said he remembers seeing the dead dog lying in the front yard and blood on England's shirt. England was irate, he said.
England also faces a charge of assault on a female for allegedly hitting a woman who tried to intervene.