FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) – Fort Worth police say undercover officers on a burglary patrol saw a man struggling with his leashed dog on Avenue I near Texas Wesleyan University Thursday.

The officers say the man got into his car holding the dog’s leash out of the driver’s side window. Then, police say, the man drove down the street dragging the dog behind.

The dog’s owner, 35-year old Anthony Brown, was arrested for animal cruelty.  “They did me like I robbed a bank or something, y’know?” Brown said. “So, I don’t understand it.”

Brown says his female pit bull, Sugar, was left at his house by a friend about a year ago and he’s taken care of it since. Brown said the dog was acting up that day and he was taking the dog to his father’s house a couple of blocks away to put her in the back yard.

“When I tried to get in the car with her, she growled,” Brown said. “So I didn’t get in the car with her, I just pulled her out of the car and held the leash out the door and drove from here to right there not even 50, 75 feet at the most,” Brown said pointing a point about half a block away. “I was doing probably about seven miles an hour because I was hanging out car with the dog, y’know?”

The Fort Worth police department wouldn’t talk about the case and wouldn’t let animal control comment on it either.  But sources say Brown apparently intended to harm, if not kill, the dog.

Brown says he cares for his pet and wouldn’t harm her.  “I wasn’t dragging a dog, man, I ain’t that kind of dude.”

An animal cruelty conviction could mean up to $4,000 in fines and two years in jail.  Sources say the dog is the care of Fort Worth animal control and is in good condition.

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