COLUMBUS- A Polk County EMS employee was terminated this week and an investigation is underway after the employee allegedly took a deceased dog and mutilated it.

The alleged offense occurred on Sunday night, Jan. 8, after a family dog was hit and killed by an ambulance off Peniel Road in Columbus. The EMS employee, Michael Purdy of Campobello, S.C., was not on duty at the time of the offense, according to Polk County Manager Marche Pittman.

Pittman said the county was made aware of the incident on Tuesday, Jan. 10 and placed Purdy on suspension within two hours of being notified.

“He was terminated less than 24 hours after we got notification of what happened,” Pittman said on Friday.

Purdy was officially dismissed of his duties by the county on Wednesday, Jan. 11 and Pittman said the county takes cases of this nature very seriously.

“On Tuesday, Jan. 10, we were made aware by the Polk County Sheriff’s Office of an investigation involving the taking and mutilation of a dead dog by one of our employees,” Pittman said in a statement. “According to officers, this employee hindered their investigation by not telling them the truth about the series of events that led up to him taking and mutilating the animal.

“Even though the employee wasn’t on duty when the act occurred, we immediately put the employee under investigation on suspension. As of noon Wednesday, Jan. 11, the employee was terminated and is no longer an employee of Polk County Local Government. Polk County Government takes these types of cases very seriously and our staff will fully cooperate with investigations of any kind by law enforcement officials.”

Attempts to reach Purdy by the Bulletin Friday for comment were not successful.