An Army veteran from Maine who is accused of shooting her emotional support dog last month and posting a video on her Facebook page is due in court in North Carolina later this month to answer the charges.
Marinna Rollins, 23, is scheduled to appear May 16 at the Cumberland County Courthouse in Fayetteville, North Carolina, along with her boyfriend, 25-year-old Jarren Heng. Each faces felony animal cruelty and conspiracy charges, according to court records. Heng is an Army Special Operations Command soldier.
The Fayetteville Observer newspaper reported this week that Rollins and Heng have been released from jail after each posted $25,000 bail.
Rollins graduated from Windham High School in 2012, but no longer lives in Maine. The newspaper said the dog’s body, which could not be immediately located, has been recovered by police.
Heng and Rollins on April 16 or 17 drove the dog, a gray and white male pit bull, to a wooded area, tied it to a tree and took turns shooting it in the head with a rifle at least 10 times.
Incensed by the execution of Huey, a group is planning to stage a protest outside the courthouse on May 16. Heidi Day, who lives in South Dakota, is organizing the protest through a Facebook page called “Justice for Huey.”
Day said she plans to drive from her home to Fayetteville to attend the protest – she estimates it will take her about 21 hours to make the trip. Day said she is obtaining permits from the sheriff’s office to stage the protest.
“We want to get justice for the dog and we want to raise awareness that we (veterans) are not killing our dogs,” said Day, a Navy veteran who has an emotional support animal (ESA) dog to help her with post traumatic stress disorder.
ESA dogs are different from service dogs in that they can be authorized by a physician. Day said the designation allows her to take her dog on airline flights and allows owners to keep the dogs in apartments where they might otherwise be banned. Service dogs are highly trained animals and it is harder to get permission to obtain one.
“As a dog lover, what she did was absolutely disturbing,” Day said. “We want to get justice for Huey.”
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