Ontario Provincial Police are investigating an animal complaint for arson after an animal was found on fire in downtown Orillia.
On Monday, Sept. 16, around 5:00 p.m., Orillia OPP officers and firefighters responded to a call about an animal in distress at the intersection of Colborne Street East and West Street South.
After arriving, provincial Const. Derek Tilley says officers found the animal in question and says, “It had clearly been on fire.”
“The animal is believed to have died by succumbing to the injuries that it received through the fire. Our officers then investigated by looking around the area and were able to locate accelerant within the area,” Tilley says.
Tilley says it is unclear at this point if that was the accelerant that was used on the animal or not or how the animal even became on fire.
“Due to the disturbing nature of the call, we’re not going to specify which type of animal (it) was, just that there was an animal in distress,” Tilley said.
But Tilley did say the animal was not believed to be wild.
The incident is currently under investigation for arson.
Tilley says that because 5 p.m. is a busy time, they hope someone who saw the incident or might have video or dashcam footage of what happened could give them more details.
Police later received video footage of a person of interest leaving the area around 4:50 p.m.
The individual is described as a male wearing black pants, a black sweater, black baseball hat, white shoes, and carrying a backpack.
Before to the incident, the individual was seen on the south side of Colborne Street East, crossing north at the crosswalk.
They then appear to have walked diagonally through a gas station parking lot, disappearing behind a building, before emerging from the location moments later where the incident occurred, police say.
Police are asking anyone who was in the area around the mentioned time and may have dashcam footage or any information about this incident to contact the OPP’s non-emergency number at 1-888-310-1122 or Crime Stoppers to remain anonymous at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS) or www.crimestopperssdm.com.