Dog Trainer Arrested For Alleged Animal Cruelty in Palm Beach County – NBC 6 South Florida

A dog fitness instructor has actually been jailed and deals with animal cruelty charges after video appears to reveal her choking and kicking dogs in Palm Beach County.

Blessing Knighten, 21, was booked into the Palm Beach County Jail on Thursday early morning and bonded out 5 hours later on. She deals with 5 charges of animal cruelty.

Animal control received a problem about Knighten from Steve Cabral, the owner of Fine Line Family K-9 in Loxahatchee on Mar. 18, NBC affiliate WPTV reported.

Cabral consequently fired Knighton and provided 3 security videos including a Belgian Malinos and a black German Shepherd portraying the supposed cruelty. In one video, Knighten is seen choking a dog for 15 to 20 seconds.

According to an arrest report obtained by WPTV, the video revealed Knighten strangling a German shepherd on what Cabral called a bite box.

“The dog’s front legs were off the ground,” the report said. “She then strolls the dog around and the dog seems hopping and in distress. She then hangs the dog back on the bite box. It has a hard time, and you can hear the dog yelp.”

However, Knighton informed detectives she was advised to treat the dogs that method by Cabral. She said that if a dog bites, she was informed to hold the dog up by the leash which normal training approaches consisted of “not feeding the dogs,” “tugging crank things” and not purchasing food.

“The dogs were extremely, extremely slim,” she informed the private investigator.

Knighton informed detectives she had an issue with Cabral’s approaches and how he was dealing with the dogs, however that he informed her that if she had an issue with that, he would reveal authorities the videos.

When asked if she utilized Cabral’s training approaches, Knighton said yes, due to the fact that she was “in a bad area” at that time.

WPTV reports that in the initial conclusion, the private investigator composed: “Blessing Knighten mistreated 2 dogs consistently and specified it as training. This is a clear case of animal abuse triggering psychological and physical discomfort.”

“In this case, we see a circumstance where animals were being mistreated,” said Dave Walesky with Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control. “I’m extremely glad to reside in a county and belong of an organization that has absolutely no tolerance for animal cruelty.”