“I’m speechless,” Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno said in a news release. “This is possibly the most brutal and horrific example of animal abuse my team or I have ever seen.”
Deputies conducted a well-being check at a Lehigh Acres residence at 10 p.m. Friday, the Fort Myers News-Press reported.
After speaking with Lara and a witness, they responded to another residence, where they saw several pools of blood outside the home and bloody footprints near its rear entrance, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Detectives executed a search warrant and discovered the body of a dog in a kitchen oven, which had been turned up to its highest setting, WINK-TV reported.
Detectives said the dog had been stabbed and bludgeoned before it was placed in the oven, the television station reported.
Lara was arrested early Saturday and booked into the Lee County Jail, according to arrest records. He is due in court May 4.
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