CenterPoint Energy Contractor Accused of Beating Dogs

KHOU 11 in Houston reports that a contractor for Centerpoint Energy is accused of beating two dogs at a home with a pipe wrench.

The worker is accused by the Wilcox family of showing up unannounced in their backyard.

Marina Wilcox was home at the time and says the man told her he was there to work on the meter and declined to have the dogs put inside.

The incident was captured on the family's surveillance system.

“Right in here where he got hit with the wrench, almost got his eye,” said Willcox as he described one of the injuries to Flash, one of his dogs. “You can see the ripple right there,” said Willcox while showing the video, “It’s where his tooth went flying into the water.”

“Never bitten anybody, very friendly,” said Willcox, “It was like the guy was swinging to kill.”

Mike Wilcox showed up as he saw the man take a swing at his other dog. “I said ‘I need to know your name,’ and he’s like, ‘CenterPoint’. And I was like, ‘Okay, you need to get off our property before things get really ugly here.’”

A complaint was filed with Centerpoint but had not heard back.

A spokesperson for CenterPoint did tell KHOU 11, “We have determined that a CenterPoint Energy contractor was at this address on this date. CenterPoint Energy does not condone or tolerate abuse of animals by our employees or our contractors. We have notified the contract company and they have assured us that they will conduct a full investigation into the incident.”

In a follow up story from KHOU 11, they talked with the contracting company that the employee worked for. They claim that he was there to shut off their gas for non-payment and that the dogs were released on him, causing him to defend himself.

Watch the video of the initial story from KHOU 11 HERE and the follow up story with contracting company HERE.