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Riverside Woman Accused Of Animal Cruelty Says She Was Just Being 'Funny' On Facebook

RIVERSIDE (CBSLA.com) — A Riverside woman is under investigation Thursday after posting a picture of a dog with a plastic bag tightly wrapped around its head on Facebook.

KCAL9's Greg Mills reports the post caused an almost immediate uproar.

Several people wrote on Amanda Beal's Facebook wall that she was an "animal abuser." Another post said, "Only a sick [expletive deleted] would think that this was even remotely funny."

Calls expressing outrage also flooded into Riverside County Animal Services.

"It was a tremendous response actually. Our phone center was just overwhelmed with the number of calls that came in," said Kim McWhorter of Riverside County Animal Services.

Mills reports calls came from all over the country. Many of the callers asked for the photo and the dog's owner to be investigated. On Causes.com there was a demand that "this person needs to be investigated for animal cruelty."

McWhorter said, "We have done our our best efforts to try to investigate it."

Animal Services, says Mills, initially found the wrong Amanda Beals (also a Riverside resident). People have been confusing her with the "real" Beals and expressing their outrage to her, as well.

He spoke to the wrong Beals, too. "So someone called me, anonymously, and they called me a puppy killer," she said, "I would never do that to a dog."

The controversial picture has now been taken down from Amanda Beals' wall.  The "real" Beals has also posted a new, updated picture of her dog. She wrote, "See! He is fine. Happy. Healthy."

In another Facebook post, Beals defended the original picture. "I am not an abuser. It was a funny moment, of a dog getting busted for sneaking into the chicken he ate all of. He's a loved dog, stop being so ignorant and mind ur own or ask the meaning b4 judging."

Mills said he reached out to the "real" Beals for a comment. Her family told Mills to get in touch with a Riverside police detective who is investigating the case.

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