BBs, amputated eye and abandonment lead to animal cruelty charges
MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - Two have been charged with animal cruelty and receiving stolen property after a witness saw a dog chasing a SUV that was driving away after it had been abandoned.
Raylean Chastity Gurneau, 21, of Minneapolis and Chue Feng Yang, 32, of Altoona, Wisconsin, have been charged with one count each of animal torture and animal cruelty, receiving stolen property and animal abandonment.
According to the Bloomington Police Department, on Nov. 18, 2021, officers responded to the area of 106th Street West and Morgan Avenue South in Bloomington on a report of an injured dog.
Upon arrival, officers spoke with a witness who said she saw a dog running after an SUV that was driving towards the freeway.
After calling the dog over to her, she observed it had blood coming from its eye and was walking with a limp. The dog had marks on its body that appeared to be scratches or grazes from the BBs, and multiple BBs were stuck in the skin on its right side.
The dog was taken to a veterinary clinic for medical care, where staff advised it had been shot between 10 and 12 times with a BB gun, and multiple BBs were stuck in the skin on her right side.
The veterinary clinic was able to remove six of the BBs, but three remain embedded, one of which struck the dog's right eye and punctured it. Due to the severity of the injury, the eye was surgically removed.
According to surveillance footage obtained by police, a dark-colored Hyundai Santa Fe identified as being driven by Feng Yang parked in a lot near Nine Mile Creek when a dog can be seen jumping out of a hatchback and running down a nearby hill. After a brief chase, Feng Yang returns without the dog before it returns to the parking lot.
Feng Yang kicks at the dog, and it runs to hide under the car, before the car quickly pulls away and it appears from under the car to chase it before being found by the witness.
Other offenses, owner known
The car occupied by the defendants was reported stolen out of St. Paul on Nov. 10, 2021, and had a forged temporary license plate.
Subsequent investigations revealed they were together with the stolen car at the Oakdale Fleet Farm a day prior to the incident, and the Roseville WalMart a day after, where they attempted to make purchases with forged checks at both locations.
The registered owner of the car said she doesn’t know either, but that her family was not missing a dog.
Law enforcement was able to use Hyundai Blue Link to track the car, where they found six BBs in the rear that matched the BBs removed from the found dog. The inside of the rear window also appeared to have blood on it.
Bloomington police obtained a search warrant for both defendants' Facebook records.
Between Oct. 27, 2021, and Dec. 6, 2021, multiple Facebook messages were exchanged with a relative that led police to believe the "victim-dog" belonged to her.
The witness told police that In October she had left her dog with the defendants to go to the store, and when she came back no one would answer the door or let her inside. For weeks she attempted to get her dog back without success, and heard from various people that it was being treated poorly, including withholding food, hitting her and beating her with a belt.
Both defendants are not currently in custody and their whereabouts are unknown. The state has requested warrants for their arrests.
Gurneau has three active warrants for failure to appear from cases stemming from November 2021.