A Missouri State football star was suspended indefinitely after allegedly punching a dog three times and breaking its jaw, according to reports Sunday.
Bears quarterback Breck Ruddick, 20, hit the 42-pound Australian shepherd so hard, the pooch, Luca, lost teeth and was rushed to a vet with a shattered jaw, the Daily Mail reported.
The player was suspended Friday for “conduct detrimental to the team” just hours after a Facebook post detailing the attack emerged, the paper reported.
The player lost his cool, punched the dog and let him “run off, all alone and bleeding profusely,” Shelby Filbeck, a friend of the dog’s owner, Katie Riggs, wrote in a Facebook post Friday afternoon.
Riggs “spent the whole night looking for her dog,” Filbeck said, according to the Daily Mail.
On Saturday, the college said the suspension was linked to the animal abuse allegations. Reddick won’t play again “until the situation is resolved,” said athletic director Kyle Moats.
“It’s obviously very serious. Not only athletics, but the entire university takes it very seriously,” Moats said Saturday night.
“That’s why there will be an internal investigation conducted by our Student Conduct office. We’ll take it from there once we find out what the findings are,” he said.
Despite the alleged attack, Ruddick traveled with the team to its game against Kansas State on Saturday, USA Today reported.
The Facebook post detailing the violent attack claims the dog needed surgery.
“He was then rushed over to the vet where they found that his jaw had been broken and he would need surgery,” Filbeck wrote.
She added, “The next day Luca went in for surgery where it was found that his jaw bones were shattered (not just broken), he had to have 6 teeth pulled, which will be permanently gone forever and they had to keep him at the vets for two days instead of one.”
The school’s Office of Student Conduct has launched an investigation and the findings will be turned over to the athletic department for team discipline, USA today reported.
“We want to make sure it’s thorough and we do it right, and however long that takes,” Moats said.