Billy Ray Huskey
WINNSBORO (Feb. 5, 2016) – The Fairfield County Sheriff’s Office arrested 48-year-old Billy Ray Huskey of Forest Lake Circle near Mitford on Saturday and charged him with ill treatment of animals in the Dec. 13 dragging incident that left a 9-month old dog severely injured.
The wounded pup was discovered off Camp Welfare Road by four women riding horseback through Carolina Adventure World near White Oak at approximately 2:30 p.m. on Dec. 13. Laura Collins, the horseback rider who first spotted the dog, said he was lying near a bush at the edge of a horse trail about 200 feet from Camp Welfare Road, a paved road that runs alongside Carolina Adventure World.
The dog, later dubbed ‘Emmanuel’ by his caregivers, was taken by one of the horseback riders to Fairfield Animal Hospital and treated by Dr. Robert Knight.
Knight later told The Voice that the dog’s injuries were consistent with having been dragged behind a vehicle. Susan Knight, a vet tech and the wife of and spokesperson for Dr. Knight, said the dog’s injuries were only a few hours old when he was brought in.
The horrific injuries sparked an outpouring of public support in an effort to save the 9-month-old pup’s life as well as locate anyone, who might have been responsible for his injuries. Somehow, the victim survived.
“Emmanuel was missing all his toenails and nail beds and all of the skin and some tissue on the top sides of every paw,” Susan Knight said. ”He was missing the hard soles on his paw pads and had multiple deep abrasions on his chest (underneath and on both sides).”
She said all of the skin and tissue on the dog’s knees, down to the bones, was gone. The skin on his left leg was slit open all the way up his groin to his side. Knight said there were other lacerations and wounds that are seen in dogs who have been dragged.
News of the injured dog and how those wounds were likely inflicted spread rapidly through Fairfield County via social media. The Hoof and Paw Benevolent Society offered a $1,500 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction of anyone involved. Deborah Richelle, president of the group told The Voice that many people in the community contributed to the reward fund.
Hoof and Paw members posted the reward in the local press and were assisted by Fairfield County Sheriff’s Deputies in distributing fliers announcing the reward throughout the area.
“If a crime was committed and if this dog was dragged behind a vehicle knowingly, someone knows what happened,” Minge Wiseman, vice president of the Hoof and Paw Society, told The Voice in December. “We hope the reward money will be what it takes to obtain the information necessary to bring the person(s) responsible to justice.”
In January, those fliers finally bore fruit as witnesses came forward and identified Huskey as the man they believed responsible for Emmanuel’s injuries.
Huskey was booked into the Fairfield County Detention Center Saturday and released the same day on a $5,000 surety bond.
