A 54-year-old Auburn Gresham man is accused of posting videos on Facebook showing the ‘agonizing’ deaths of a raccoons being burned alive, knifed, mauled by a dog and run over by a car, officials said.
Pierre Scarbrough is charged with six misdemeanor counts of depiction of animal cruelty, and was cited for illegal hunting, no valid hunting license and taking, possessing or selling a wild animal, police said. Scarbrough was arrested Wednesday while at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse for an unrelated hearing for a pending felony drug charge.
Scarbrough, a convicted felon, was scheduled for a detention hearing on the animal abuse allegations Friday.
Scarbrough was identified as the person responsible for social media posts from July 19-26, 2026 that depict animal cruelty, according to a statement from Chicago police.
Acting on a confidential tip, the animal crimes investigation unit with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) conducted a search of Scarbrough’s Facebook account after someone spotted a Facebook post of a “raccoon being burned alive,” according to a police report.
After executing a warrant, investigators found Scarbrough posted multiple videos on Facebook that included “burning a raccoon alive while the raccoon is in severe agonizing pain and suffering; murdering a raccoon with a large knife and showing said raccoon’s dead body with blood around the animal; intentionally running over two raccoons with his vehicle, causing their deaths; recording a severely injured raccoon unable to move underneath a vehicle and admitting to deliberately injuring said raccoon; recording a deceased mouse on the sidewalk and admitting to stomping and jumping on said mouse causing its death and posting a recording of a dog mauling a raccoon and shaking it around inside its mouth causing injury,” according a police report.
Scarbrough, who is a convicted felon, pleaded guilty in 2014 to aggravated domestic battery, a felony, for which he was sentenced to five years, court records show.
In a CBS post that cited Sun-Times wire reporting, it was alleged that Scarbrough and his girlfriend beat his 11-year-old daughter with an electrical cord after she allegedly ate his ice cream.