Petition: The Collar Was Embedded in His Neck. The Dog Belonged to a Sheriff’s Deputy.

On July 23, 2026, the Martinsville and Henry County 911 centre in Virginia took a call about a dog running loose. Deputies found a husky whose collar had grown so tight it was embedded in the flesh of his neck, cutting into him. They took him straight to a vet, where the collar was surgically removed. He was also underweight. The investigation into who owned him produced an uncomfortable answer: the dog belonged to Robert Tatum, at that time a deputy with the Henry County Sheriff’s Office, assigned to the corrections division. Tatum resigned during the investigation. On July 27 the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office authorised a charge, Virginia State Police arrested him, and he was released on a $3,500 secured bond. Please sign the petition calling for full prosecution and a ban on owning animals.

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An embedded collar is not an accident that happens overnight. It is what occurs when a collar is left on a growing or neglected animal for months while the skin grows around it, and it is one of the injuries veterinarians and animal control officers describe as unmistakable evidence of prolonged neglect rather than a single bad day. That it happened in the home of a serving law enforcement officer is the part that has driven the public response. To the sheriff’s office’s credit, its own Animal Services Unit ran the investigation, took the dog for treatment, opened an internal administrative inquiry alongside the criminal one, and referred the findings for prosecution. Sheriff Wayne Davis said the welfare of animals in the community matters and thanked the Commonwealth’s Attorney and Virginia State Police. Tatum has been charged, not convicted, and is entitled to due process. The husky’s ending is the better part of this: he was surrendered to the Henry County Animal Shelter, then transferred to Angels for Animals in Ohio, where he remains under veterinary care and will be put up for adoption once he has recovered. One Green Planet’s guide on what to do if you suspect animal abuse in your neighborhood covers how a call like the one that saved this dog actually works, and the case is reported by WDBJ7.

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