Update 11:28 a.m. — Hunt County Sheriff Randy Meeks said that his office is taking the initial report regarding this incident, and that Constable Terry Jones will be conducting an investigation. A spokesperson for the SPCA of Texas has confirmed they have an open case regarding the incident and are working with Jones to investigate the incident.
Update 11:10 a.m. — The Royse City Fire Department has released the following statement on Facebook:
"Allegedly, a member of the Union Valley Fire Department posted a boast on Facebook claiming that he killed 2 dogs on his property. He included pictures of the deceased dogs. His Facebook identified himself as a fireman and claimed that he lived in Royse City. We have received a deluge of angry emails and phone calls this morning.
To set the record straight…. the person has been suspended as a Union Valley fireman, and lives outside of our city limits. Any offense did not occur within Royse City jurisdiction."
Original — A Union Valley volunteer firefighter posted a photo Tuesday afternoon to his Facebook page, alleging to have killed two of his neighbor's dogs.
"Somebody didn't put any truth my warning [sic]," a screen shot of the Facebook caption reads. "Keep your damn dogs on your property."
The Union Valley Fire Department said they do not condone the actions and they are removing the firefighter, identified as Tim Conatser in the Facebook post, from the department.
"As previously stated, we do not condone the recent actions of one of our firefighters," Union Valley Volunteer Fire Department said on their Facebook page. "We are following our policy in removing him from our department. This is now a civil/criminal matter that we have no jurisdiction over. Please forward all concerns to local law enforcement and/or the SPCA."
A call to the Union Valley Fire Department was not immediately returned. We will post more information as we receive it.