Former ACCT Philly employee charged with animal cruelty for injuring dog who was later euthanized

A former employee of ACCT Philly, the city’s primary animal shelter, has been charged with felony cruelty for injuring a dog named Saint who was subsequently euthanized because of the injury, the District Attorney’s Office announced Friday.

Terrell Walton, 30, was charged with aggravated animal cruelty and a misdemeanor count of animal cruelty in the case of Saint, whose treatment and death caused an uproar among animal-welfare activists last year and led to a lawsuit filed against ACCT Philly by the pit bull’s owner.

In a statement issued Friday night, ACCT Philly said that what happened to Saint “is heartbreaking and unacceptable. And to now have additional information that indicates the injury happened while in our care is deeply troubling. Nothing we can say will change this, or eliminate the deep hurt Saint’s family has experienced.”

The nonprofit organization added: “In 2021, we implemented changes in policy to prevent a tragic situation like this from ever happening again. Additionally, upon learning that additional information had led to cruelty charges, we arranged for a two-day dog handling training by outside experts for our entire staff. We will continue to conduct this expert training annually, in addition to ongoing internal training.”

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The leadership team in charge of ACCT Philly at the time of Saint’s death has since left the perennially beleaguered and chronically underfunded nonprofit.

Online court records show Walton was arrested Thursday and was being held on Friday at the city’s Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility in lieu of 10% of $25,000 bail.

On Aug. 4, a city police officer transported Saint to ACCT Philly after a man who had Saint with him was arrested following a traffic stop, Jane Roh, spokesperson for District Attorney Larry Krasner, said in an email summarizing the case.

“Saint was observed to be in fair condition with no visible injuries, and showed no aggressive behavior,” Roh said.

At the ACCT Philly facility at 111 W. Hunting Park Ave. in North Philadelphia, Walton was the employee who was supposed to remove Saint from the police vehicle, Roh said.

“Video footage showed Walton using a rabies or catch pole — a metal pole with a cord loop at one end that can be tightened to help control or restrain animals — to retrieve Saint,” Roh said.

The police officer “observed Walton making jabbing motions into the [police] vehicle, and then heard Saint yelp or cry, which compelled the officer to return to his car,” Roh said.

As Walton removed Saint from the police vehicle, the officer saw blood and fecal matter in the back and on the ground that had not been there previously, Roh said.

“As Saint was taken into ACCT, the officer attempted to get Walton’s information to report what he had observed, but was prevented by an ACCT employee from following the animal into the building,” Roh said.

The ACCT employee who blocked the police officer was not identified.

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Saint suffered a mandibular fracture — a broken jaw — and was subsequently euthanized, Roh said.

Saint’s co-owner Tiffany Lavelle alleged that she attempted to take Saint home before the dog was euthanized but was told by ACCT Philly that she could not without an appointment from a veterinarian to treat the broken jaw. Lavelle did not have an appointment, she said. Saint reportedly was euthanized within 12 hours of arriving at ACCT Philly.

Lavelle, who runs a Facebook page called Justice for Saint, said in a post Friday that she was “happy” about the announcement of criminal charges, and she thanked the Pennsylvania SPCA, which conducted the initial cruelty investigation. She also thanked Jordan Strokovsky, the lawyer who filed her still-pending lawsuit.

“This is the first [step] to change and I am definitely not stopping here,” Lavelle wrote.

In its statement, ACCT Philly noted that it “cares for more than 15,000 animals each year as the only open intake shelter and animal care and control provider in the City of Philadelphia. Since 2019, almost 9 out of every ten animals have been adopted, returned to their owners, or sent to rescue.”