Black Ink Crew New York, a VH1 show about tattoo artists working in Harlem, used to star a 43-year-old artist named Ceaser Emanuel. Now, the show has completely severed ties with Emanuel after witnessing a disturbing incident of animal abuse perpetrated by him.
Footage from a Ring camera went viral this year, horrifying both fans of the show and dog lovers everywhere. The disturbing video shows Emanuel hitting a dog with a folding chair, among other things.
The Abuse Incident Caught On Camera
This conversation really came to the forefront when the Ring camera footage was posted to Twitter in late June of 2022. The video has a watermark, but you can still clearly tell that Emanuel is abusing a dog.
The dog runs towards the corner of the driveway, and he follows it. Emanuel then picks up a nearby folding chair and repeatedly strikes the dog with it. Later in the video, he puts a dog in a cage and then shoves the cage so that it rolls over several times.
I’ll include it below so you can see (if you can stomach it) what happened for yourself.
this is sick ! Someone sent in their ring camera showing Ceaser from black ink abusing a dog ! #vh1 #blackinkcrew #ceaser #blackink pic.twitter.com/TYMj7pDBbK
— INSTA: @gossipofthecitytea (@GOTCITYTEA) June 22, 2022
Fallout And Consequences
Black Ink Crew reacted pretty quickly after this video went viral. VH1 fired Emanuel back in June. On June 23rd, the network shared this statement:
“We have made the decision to cut ties with Ceaser Emanuel from Black Ink Crew New York. Since next season was close to finishing production, this decision will not impact the upcoming season.”
On July 9th, 2022, Emanuel turned himself in and was charged with two counts of animal cruelty and one count of aggravated cruelty to animals. However, he went home later that day.
A representative for Emanuel told The Shade Room:
“Ceaser willing turned himself in and was released the same day on July 9th from the Fulton County Police Department. His legal team is fully cooperating with the Fulton County Police Department to bring him justice for this incident. As we stated previously the dogs are in a great space, safe and healthy.”
Animal abusers are often repeat offenders, so if charged with animal cruelty, Emanuel should not be able to have dogs anymore.
Emanuel’s Defense
Though Emanuel has officially apologized, he still maintains that what happened in that video was not animal abuse. Emanuel’s lawyer, Walter Mosley, told PEOPLE that his client was attempting to stop an aggressive dog from attacking others in the video.
“Ceaser is an avid dog lover and has many dogs and has had in his lifetime, many dogs and other pets. This was an unfortunate situation as I understand it, where there were a number of other aggressive dogs attacking smaller dogs and probably was a lapse of judgment as to how to appropriately break it up, break up that interaction.”
Emanuel himself had previously responded to the video’s spread with a similar sentiment:
“Not one time was I trying to abuse this dog. I was trying to get him back in his cage. I’m not gonna make any excuses for myself. I should’ve behaved better, but that’s not me being cruel to animals.”
Mosley went on to admit that Emanuel’s methods were flawed, but that his intentions remain good. He also emphasized that this video captured events “probably almost a year or older” and that Emanuel had already been working through them.
“In some ways, what was not seen in that video, was him protecting the smaller dogs, he just likely didn’t do this in the best way, so he’s seeking assistance and help to make sure that as a dog owner, he’s properly managing it, and understands how to interact in more healthy ways with all types of dogs and all of his dogs, but this is certainly a situation that he had addressed a long time ago.”
Adding to that, Emanuel has said he thinks the sudden “disruption” caused by the spread of the Ring camera footage does unfair character damage.
“I feel like I’m being set up in some way because the way I’m being portrayed, that’s not my character.”
Emanuel’s former co-star, Donna Lombardi, disagrees. As she posted on Instagram:
“If you can treat a dog like this, it shows how sick of a person you truly are. I don’t even get into the life of this man, but this video made me so upset. Anyone who knows me, knows I LOVE animals. Especially dogs.”
The damage has been done either way, both to the dog and Emanuel’s relationship with Black Ink Crew.
Featured Image: Instagram
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