AN ABINGDON MAN IS CHARGED WITH ANIMAL CRUELTY AFTER DOG DIES IN NOVEMBER 2019

An Abingdon man has been charged with animal cruelty in a November 2019 case. 47-year-old Larry Gene Harless has been charged with one felony count of cruelty to animals after a bluetick breed hunting dog named "Smokey" was found with injuries to the head and eye. According to authorities, the dog was tied up on the property of its owner on Old Mill Road in the Glade Spring area of Washington County. Smokey was then taken to VCA Highlands Animal Hospital in Abingdon for treatment and died there that night. A necropsy was completed on the dog at Virginia Tech. Harless is in jail at the Southwest Virginia Regional Jail in Abingdon on other unrelated charges, and he is being held without bond. 

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