DETROIT – The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office announced that no charges will be issued in connection with the severe burns to beloved dog “Gideon,” sparking outrage from the Detroit Animal Welfare Group.
“I’m so upset,” said DAWG Director Kelly LaBonty. “How can you not prosecute that? How can you not? I just can’t even believe it. I can’t even believe it.”
In a release on Friday, Wayne County prosecutors revealed details about the circumstances that led to severe burns for Gideon and the decision to not issue charges.
Prosecutors said that on the morning of Jan. 12, a 19-year-old woman called 911, saying her mom was drunk and antagonizing her at their Detroit home.
Hours later, that mother called the police, saying her puppy had been badly burned after she and her daughter had argued, but she didn’t witness what happened.
Minutes later, the mother called 911 again and said her daughter had thrown the dog into hot water.
“This is a dangerous person that’s out here — someone who can do that to an animal,“ said LaBonty. ”They need to be behind bars.”
The mother later said Gideon jumped into the tub, and a veterinary expert said burn patterns showed the dog was placed in scalding water, hind legs first, according to the prosecutor’s office.
“There’s a police report with the mother stating what happened,” LaBonty said. “There’s evidence. I just don’t understand. This is why it happens all the time.”
Here’s a full breakdown of the prosecutor’s findings:
No charges issued
On Friday, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy announced that her office will not file charges in the case. (NOTE: Worthy’s full statement is included lower in this article.)
The decision sparked outrage from the Detroit Animal Welfare Group, which has been vocal in demanding charges and protesting the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office’s handling of the case.
Here’s what DAWG posted on Facebook:
Urgent: Team Gideon, we need your help today!
Kym Worthy the Wayne County Prosecuter has put out a statement that they are not going to prosecute Gideon’s abuser, who burned him in hot water.
This is the most horrific case of animal abuse we have seen, and we have a private attorney who will prosecute the abuser. We are in absolute disbelief that they have chosen not to prosecute.
We need funds to do this. We have wasted 6 months waiting for the prosecutors to do their job! This is urgent and our attorney is ready to go!
Gideon has suffered so much and will be affected the rest of his life! Please help him get justice!!!!
Detroit Animal Welfare Group (DAWG)
Rumors about what happened to Gideon have been swirling online for months, but Friday was the first time prosecutors officially released their findings.
Argument between mother, 19-year-old daughter
They said a 19-year-old woman called 911 at 1:45 a.m. Jan. 12, 2025, from a house on Maddelien Street in Detroit. She reported that her mother was intoxicated and antagonizing her and asked that her mom be removed from the home.
When police officers arrived, they said the two women were arguing, so they made the mother leave the home. She went to her son’s house across the street and stayed the night there, according to prosecutors.
911 call about Gideon’s burns
The mother called 911 at 10:44 a.m. Jan. 12 to report that when she got back home, one of her dogs -- later identified as Gideon -- was crying and had severe burns on its body. She said Gideon had been burned after she and her daughter’s argument.
Prosecutors said the mother reported that Gideon did not jump into the bathtub.
The 911 dispatcher transferred the call to the Detroit Animal Control Center, but the mother called 911 again at 10:55 a.m. because DACC couldn’t help her, according to prosecutors.
The woman said she had called the police because her 19-year-old daughter threw her dog in a tub of hot water while she wasn’t home. She believed her daughter did it because of their earlier argument, prosecutors said.
Two Detroit police officers went to the home at 11:11 a.m. and spoke with the woman and her two daughters, ages 19 and 13. The officers said Gideon was in “deep distress,” with burns on its legs and face.
Police said they asked the mother if she saw her 19-year-old daughter harm Gideon, and the mother said no. The mother said the 19-year-old was the only one at the home at the time of Gideon’s injuries.
Police did note that the 19-year-old’s boyfriend had been upstairs in the house at the time.
What 13-year-old daughter told police
The 13-year-old daughter said she had been downstairs sleeping when she heard Gideon crying. She said she saw Gideon run down the stairs screaming and suffering from severe burns.
When police asked the 13-year-old about Gideon jumping into the bathtub, she told them he was too small to do so on its own.
What 19-year-old daughter told police
The 19-year-old daughter told police that she was on the second floor of the home when she got up from bed and went to the bathroom in the morning.
She said there’s no door to the bathroom, so she routinely runs bathwater to cover up the sound of her using the bathroom, prosecutors said.
She said when she went back to sleep, she knew there was water in the tub.
Police said the 19-year-old told them that she was upstairs with her boyfriend when they heard Gideon screaming. The boyfriend lifted Gideon out of the water, the 19-year-old told police.
How DAWG got involved
Police said they told the mother to get medical help for Gideon when they left the house.
That same day, a third daughter -- who does not live at the home and wasn’t there when Gideon got hurt -- called a friend who helped get Gideon to DAWG, according to prosecutors.
Gideon was treated at an animal hospital for 10 days and was released to a foster home on Jan. 23. Outpatient care continued through Feb. 7, as Gideon was treated for pain, refusal to walk, weight loss, bacterial infections, necrotic skin, and third-degree burns, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors said there’s no evidence to suggest Gideon suffered chemical burns.
Wayne County prosecutors learn about case
The release says Worthy received information about Gideon’s case through social media reports in February 2025. She assigned Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office detectives to help Detroit police with the investigation on Feb. 23, 2025.
The investigation began Feb. 26 and lasted until June 6, according to the release.
Detective interviews
During their interviews with detectives, the mother, the 19-year-old daughter, and the daughter’s boyfriend all separately said that Gideon jumped into the bathtub, prosecutors said.
The mother said she would make her 13-year-old daughter available for a forensic interview, but failed to do so on two different occasions, according to the release.
“There is no way to compel an interview without the mother’s cooperation,” prosecutors said in the release.
The third daughter who called her friend to help Gideon was interviewed, as was a brother to the three sisters. Neither of those two siblings were at the home when Gideon got hurt.
The brother said he had worked on the water heater pilot light in the house several days earlier and set it at an intermediate temperature setting. Police did not note the temperature setting of the water heater when they went to the home on Jan. 12, according to prosecutors.
Veterinarian assessment
A veterinarian assessed the injuries and found that the water contacted Gideon from the underside.
She said puppies are generally uncomfortable in the water and are frightened of tubs, so it would be extremely unlikely for a puppy to jump into the tub for a bath or a drink.
She said if the puppy did jump into the tub, the injury pattern would include facial, head, and neck damage, as well as to his hind quarters. She said if the puppy were lifted by holding him around the chest to place him in a tub of water, the hind quarters would reach the water first, followed by the front legs.
“She concludes that in this case, the puppy was likely placed into the tub hind limbs first, followed by his forelimbs, and remained there for seconds or minutes when he was removed from the tub,” the release says.
Gideon’s injuries caused “severe, long-lasting pain” and threatened his life, the veterinarian concluded.
Social media investigation
Prosecutors reviewed social media and said that reports of the 19-year-old admitting to putting the dog in the water are “unsubstantiated.”
Warrant request reviewed
Prosecutors said the case was turned over to an experienced assistant prosecutor in the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office Animal Protection Unit and also reviewed by senior assistant prosecutors.
These were some of the factors considered:
- Even though the mother and 13-year-old daughter didn’t see the 19-year-old place Gideon in the water, they were both adamant that he did not jump into a tub of hot water.
- The 13-year-old said Gideon was too young to get into the tub on his own.
- The mother said Gideon had never jumped into the bathtub before. She said she believed her 19-year-old daughter put Gideon in the hot water because of their argument.
- When the mother was re-interviewed about a month and a half later, she changed her statement to say she was present when Gideon jumped into the tub on his own and was unable to get out.
- The mother’s revised version of the event matched the version from her 19-year-old daughter and the daughter’s boyfriend.
- There was no chance for prosecutors to re-interview the 13-year-old daughter because the mother twice failed to bring her to interviews.
“The span of time between the initial interview by the on-scene officers and the interviews by WCPO detectives and DPD certainly may have allowed time for the suspect and the mother to agree upon an alternate version of the facts portraying this as an accident caused by the dog,” the release says. “It should be noted that the mother and her two daughters all continue to live under the same roof.”
Prosecutors concluded that the facts and evidence didn’t support a case against the 19-year-old that could be proven without a reasonable doubt, the release says.
Worthy recommended that the warrant request be denied. She said she reviewed the case and found that the facts and evidence didn’t support charges.
The official reason for the warrant request being denied is “insufficient evidence to prosecute.”
Kym Worthy statement
Here is the full statement from Worthy, which was included at the end of the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office release about this decision.
I understand the passion of animal lovers. We have had an Animal Protection Unit with dedicated prosecutors reviewing animal cruelty cases since 2010. From 2010 until the present, we have charged 517 cases. My office is the only one in our state to have a dedicated unit for these cases.
People are correct about this: Gideon, a four-month-old Jack Russell Terrier, suffered horrific abuse. But in every crime, we must be able to prove WHO did it. We are not able to do that in this case. Some think that we should have just rounded up everyone in the house and charged everyone quickly and without a thorough investigation. We are certainly not going to arrest and charge everyone that we think are responsible -- that must be backed up by evidence. Evidence and facts must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. In some cases, we strongly suspect who has committed a crime and we may think that they are guilty, but as long as I am the Wayne County prosecutor, we will not charge if it is not supported by our laws. I will never grandstand like that. None of us are going to violate our oaths to do justice by circumventing the law and what is right.
I absolutely support people’s right to protest and express their opinions. I prefer that people be respectful in voicing said opinions. Many people have been unbelievably mean, threatening, disrespectful, and spiteful -- but even that is tolerated. Just know that no number of protesters, strongly worded posts, and bombardment of emails and texts are going to make me do what is not right, what is not just, and what is not allowable under the law.
We understand that there will be many that will be very displeased with our decision to deny charges today. These will be some of the same people that disparaged us for taking our time to do a complete investigation. But what is right is right. What is just is just. Sometimes our charging decisions will upset others. But ultimately, we must charge what we can prove. We must be able to prove who did this horrible injustice, and we cannot do that in this case.
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy
First update in nearly 2 months
The most recent previous update in this case came in the first week of May, while protestors were outside the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office.
DAWG members gathered outside the prosecutor’s office to protest the county’s handling of Gideon’s case and animal abuse cases in general.
That day, Worthy released a statement saying, in part, that her team was still working on the case and that the investigation was “nearing completion.”
Local 4 reached out to the prosecutor’s office for a statement while the protest was going on outside.
Here is the full statement we received from Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy.
I firmly believe in the First Amendment and the right of people to peacefully protest. I understand that the Gideon animal abuse case is important, and people are passionate about it.
My detectives have been working on the case for six weeks, and the investigation is nearing completion. It is important for people to understand that we cannot and will not rush our work. We will thoroughly review the evidence in this case to make a charging decision
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy
Dozens of protestors were outside the building, carrying signs such as, “Speaking for the voiceless,” and “Enough is enough -- we need charges.”
Gideon’s story
Local 4 has followed the story of Gideon for several months. The 3-month-old Jack Russell Terrier puppy was taken in by DAWG on Jan. 12, 2025, with what members described as serious injuries.
They believe he was purposely submerged in boiling water.
“I’ve never been -- 13 years of rescue, in 20 years of anesthesia -- seen any living being in so much pain,” DAWG Director Kelly LaBonty said.
Third-degree burns covered Gideon’s body. LaBonty said the puppy was suffering badly, but he slowly began to recover. He was eventually transferred to the care of a foster family in Lake Orion.
“We didn’t think he was going to survive,” said Janet Austin, DAWG volunteer and Gideon’s foster mom (and now permanent dog mom). “So, my husband and I just focused on giving him the daily care he needed.”
His care included daily bandage changes, pain medication, soothing creams, and even skin grafts.
Gideon’s popularity
Gideon’s story went international, reaching as far as the UK, Australia, and Africa.
Supporters from around the United States -- Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, and Pennsylvania -- sent gifts and even traveled by car and plane to meet Gideon.
READ: Gideon inspires with survival story as investigation into abuse continues
More than 1,500 people gathered at Bubba’s 33 in Macomb for the chance to see him in person.
“The line was wrapped around the restaurant,” LaBonty said.
“People were waiting over an hour just to meet him,” Austin said. “He has quite a following.”
DAWG’s frustration
Even when we first spoke to her back in February, LaBonty expressed frustration that more than six weeks had passed without justice for Gideon.
At the time, Local 4 contacted multiple agencies -- the police, the prosecutor’s office, Detroit Animal Care and Control, the Michigan Humane Society, and even the dog’s original owners -- to determine who was working on Gideon’s case.
We learned that the prosecutor’s office and police were both working on the case. Detroit police said the investigation was ongoing, and prosecutors said they’d assigned an animal cruelty detective to a “very disturbing case.”
“Prosecutor Worthy will contact DPD to determine who will take the lead on the case,” Local 4 was told.
Prosecutors told Local 4 that they started working on the case in mid-March. In early April, they were still gathering evidence.
“We must prove a case beyond a reasonable doubt by having facts and evidence that can be presented in a court of law,” the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office said.
“I hope we obviously get prosecution for Gideon and not just a slap on the wrist and not just probation,” LaBonty said. “I mean, this is serious. ... We have to be the voice for all the animals. It’s not just Gideon. Gideon’s just a small part of the story.”
Upon receiving information about Gideon, Michigan Humane told us an investigator responded to the complaint, learned that the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office was involved, and began working with them.