Elizabeth Jaimes and ‘Maya’ (Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office)
A 24-year-old woman in Florida was identified this week as the person caught on a hidden security camera beating a dog with a mallet, leaving the 9-year-old husky victim with multiple bone fractures and blind in one eye.
Elizabeth Jaimes was taken into custody on Monday and charged with one count of aggravated cruelty to animals with a weapon, a second-degree felony, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show. According to a press release from the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, deputies on May 1 responded to a 911 call regarding an animal cruelty incident at a residence located in the 5000 block of Halifax Drive.
Upon arriving at the scene, deputies were provided with a tape from an in-home security camera that allegedly showed Jaimes “holding a 9-year-old Siberian Husky ‘Maya’ with a leash and repeatedly striking the dog with a rubber mallet on the head and torso,” authorities say.
Jaimes lives in the Halifax Drive residence with her boyfriend and his mother, who is the owner of the Siberian husky and the one who provided investigators with the alleged footage of the mallet attack.
Personnel at the Veterinary Emergency Group examined the dog and determined that she was blind in one of her eyes and had sustained multiple blunt force injuries to her head as well as back injuries that included fractures to her spine and ribs, the sheriff’s office said.
The husky’s owner told investigators she noticed that Maya suddenly started sustaining a mysterious spate of injuries in August 2022 — the same time that Jaimes moved into the home with her boyfriend and his mother. At the request of the dog’s veterinarian, the boyfriend’s mother installed a hidden camera in her home to observe what was happening to Maya when she was not around.
When she checked the surveillance tape, the boyfriend’s mother allegedly saw that Jaimes was the one responsible for the shocking abuse. Investigators said that Jaimes admitted to harming Maya because the dog had “growled at her.”
HCSO posted the disturbing hidden camera footage to the agency’s YouTube channel. It shows a woman identified as Jaimes holding the dog’s leash in her left hand and a rubber mallet with a wooden handle in her left hand. The woman then raises the mallet up over her head and appears to strike the dog forcefully about a dozen times. The dog can be heard crying and yelping in pain throughout the alarming footage.
“The actions of Elizabeth Jaimes are reprehensible,” Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said in a statement. “No animal deserves to be treated cruelly and inhumanely, and we will not tolerate it.”
Following Jaimes’ arrest, Maya was returned to her owner and is currently recovering at home, per the release. The boyfriend’s mother also filed court documents seeking an injunction against Jaimes.
“As a dog lover, it is gut-wrenching to hear this precious animal cry for help,” Chronister said. “We are pleased to hear that Maya is recovering at home with her owner.”
Be warned, the video is disturbing:
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