On Oct. 30, neighbors on Allenby Street in Prichard, Alabama, called 911. They had seen a pit bull on fire, running loose through a yard and out into the street. Deputies arrested the dog’s owner, 46-year-old Ryan Lekeith Nelson. According to WKRG, he reportedly admitted he used lighter fluid and matches to burn the dog.

Nelson claimed the dog was attacking him. Mobile County Sheriff Paul Burch says nothing backs that up: Nelson had no injuries, not even a scratch, and neighbors did not support his story. “He’s just an evil person,” Burch told News 5.

The dog never had a chance. The City of Prichard Animal Shelter rushed it to a veterinarian, but its burns and shock were too severe to treat. It was humanely euthanized.

Now the Mobile County District Attorney’s Office decides how seriously this case is handled. A reduced charge or a light plea deal would send a dangerous message: that setting a living animal on fire carries little consequence. Sheriff Burch has also warned that someone willing to do this to an innocent animal could be capable of harming a person.

The District Attorney should pursue the strongest charges Alabama’s animal cruelty laws allow and oppose any reduced plea. The District Attorney should also ask the court to include a lifetime ban on owning, keeping or living with animals in any sentence. No one accused of something this cruel should ever be trusted with another animal.

Sign the petition to demand full justice for this dog, before another animal suffers the same fate.