I don’t know what it is about football and animal cruelty but it seems that yet another Falcons player is being accused of killing dogs… well not dogs in the plural sense but a dog, as in his girlfriend’s adorable little yorkie! *sigh*

Prince Shembo, a second-year Atlanta Falcons linebacker, is in the news today after word spread that he’s been charged with aggravated cruelty to animals for kicking and killing his girlfriend?s dog.

Details + photos of the deceased pup below…
According to the AJC, Shembo’s girlfriend?brought her small Yorkie, named Dior (pictured), to Shembo?s apartment. Sh?left, only to return to find her dog “unresponsive.”

Dior was taken to an animal hospital where he eventually died. ?The following day, Shembo allegedly made comments to Williams about killing the dog, and she broke up with him,.

An autopsy found that Dior had suffered ?significant internal injuries and the cause of death was blunt force trauma.?

According to police, the little dog had a fractured rib, fractured liver, abdominal hemorrhage, thoracic hemorrhage, extensive bruising and hemorrhage in the muscles in her front leg and shoulders, head trauma, hemorrhage and edema in lungs, hemorrhage between the esophagus and trachea, and hemorrhage in the left eye with internal injuries.

Regrettably, this is not the first time Shembo has been accused of a vicious crime. While in college, he was accused of sexual assault, where the victim later committed suicide.

Shembo was the Notre Dame player accused by student Lizzy Seeberg of sexually assaulting her. Seeberg claimed the university and police failed to properly investigate her allegations, and bullied her into silence. Seeberg later committed suicide.

Shembo was never charged or named in connection with the alleged assault, but confirmed he was the player involved during an interview at last year?s combine. (source)

Welp… it looks like Shembo may be either facing a bad case of Karma or just plain ole stupidity.

(Dayum shame what he did to that dog… )

***UPDATE 5/29 7:01pm – Falcons just cut Shembo from the team. CNN reports:

The Atlanta Falcons waived linebacker Prince Shembo on Friday (5/29), according to Adam Caplan of ESPN Insider, after he was charged with felony aggravated cruelty to an animal.

The falcons moved quickly to distance itself from the drama and released the following statement earlier today:

We are aware of the charges that have been filed against Prince Shembo.

We are extremely disappointed that one of our players is involved in something like this. Accordingly, we have decided to waive Prince Shembo.

The case was especially sensitive to a franchise that lost star quarterback Michael Vick after he was charged with running a dogfighting ring in 2007. Vick wound up serving federal prison time and never played again for the Falcons.

What do you think of this sticky situation?

Are you surprised the Falcons decided to boot him from the team?