Jones is from Garysburg but was keeping the dog at a family member's house in the county, Hale said.

In a statement on the matter, PETA said on March 6, two volunteers were delivering free straw to dogs when they discovered the still-chained body of young pit bull inside a plastic barrel.

(The following link contains graphic images of Night Train)

A postmortem report confirmed the neglected dog, whose name was Night Train, had been forgotten on the end of his chain. He had been unable to forage for himself and had slowly starved to death, suffering from total organ failure.

According to the veterinarian's findings, the lack of fat reserves in Night Train's body and the presence of foreign material in his stomach—which contained only pieces of a glove, plastic, and a red fabric material—indicate that he suffered from chronic starvation for an extended period of time.

"Night Train died slowly, unable to leave that spot or draw attention to his own suffering, which was entirely preventable. This tragedy serves as a reminder that other dogs in Halifax County are still chained up and forgotten," says PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. "PETA urges Halifax County to prevent other dogs from suffering in this way by following the lead of Roanoke Rapids, Weldon, and Enfield and enacting a ban on the continuous tethering of dogs."