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American football star suspended over allegations he broke dog’s jaw

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

An American footballer has been suspended indefinitely by his university team following allegations that he broke a dog’s jaw by punching it three times.

Missouri State’s Office of Student Conduct has launched an investigation into allegations against Bears quarterback Breck Ruddick, describing it as “conduct detrimental to the team.”

The suspension on Friday came hours after a Facebook post accused the 20-year-old of beating a friend’s Australian shepherd, Luca, who he was supposed to be looking after.

Shelby Filbeck, a friend of Luca’s owner, posted horrific pictures of the dog with a broken jaw and teeth missing to the site.

She wrote: “Earlier this week one of my close friends left her adorable sweet loving dog with Breck Ruddick.

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“This was someone she trusted, this was a guy who has watched her dog before and who she has spent a good amount of time with as friends. She never thought leaving her 42 pound Australian Shepherd with Breck, a 200+ pound MSU football player, would lead to this.

“Never once did she, nor anyone else for that matter, believe that Breck could get so upset with this sweet dog that he would hit him in the jaw, not just once but three times.

“After ‘loosing [sic] his cool’ and hitting poor Luca he led him outside and let him run off, all alone and bleeding profusely.”

The dog’s owner, Katie Riggs, confirmed to KY3 that the Facebook account was accurate, but declined to add more.

A Facebook posted has been attributed to Ruddick that reads: “The story that’s getting told is way out of proportion. I didn’t break the dogs the [sic] jaw nor did I let him run away.

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Images of the dog’s jaw were posted on Facebook

“I was dog sitting him and he was on my bed, I wanted him off the bed so I gave him like a tap to try and get him off but he didn’t move so I gave him a little push and he bit my hand not extremely hard but enough to shock me.”

Athletic director Kyle Moats said Saturday night said: “It’s obviously very serious. Not only athletics, but the entire university takes it very seriously. 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.”