Blake Hiligh, Zachary Pilarcek.
Two college football players have been arrested and kicked off their team after a video posted to Snapchat allegedly showed them beating a miniature poodle with a leather belt.
Blake Hiligh, 19, and Zachary Pilarcek, 20, who played for the University at Buffalo football team, are both charged with one count of overdriving, torturing and injuring animals and one count of failure to provide proper sustenance, according to a press release from John Flynn, the district attorney of Erie County, N.Y.
According to the release, the suspects were allegedly seen on a video beating the dog inside an Amherst apartment on June 13. The next day, the local SPCA seized the dog — a 4-year-old male named Kobe — and both suspects were charged.
According toESPN.com, Hiligh was a cornerback and Pilarcek was a tight end.
A release from the SPCA states that on the night of June 13, an anonymous email was sent to the organization’s Animal Cruelty Investigations Department that contained a video that had been posted to Snapchat that evening.
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According to the release, Pilarcek is allegedly heard in the video “speaking off-camera about damage a dog did to a couch in a Sweet Home Road apartment he shares with the dog’s owner, Hiligh, a native of Maryland, and claims he will film the punishment the dog will receive.”
“Hiligh, the dog’s owner, is then filmed yelling at the dog … and proceeds to beat him with what appears to be a leather belt,” the release states.
If convicted of the charges, both face a maximum sentence of one year in jail, according to the DA’s release.
It was not immediately clear if either suspect has retained an attorney or entered pleas to the charges.
source: people.com
